Domaine Marc Tempe Gewurztraminer Mambourg Grand Cru – 2020

“Marc and Anne Marie Tempé told us, ‘This is our favourite vineyard. The vines are more than 60 years old and some are nearly 100 years old.’ Clay limestone with iron oxide. The iron oxide gives bitterness. South facing. Hot, but soil stays cool. RS 26.3 g/l
This has a wonderful laurel and poached pear and cardamom aromas. And like a few of the other Tempé wines, it has a distinctively aromatic ‘sweet green’ gauziness and a liquorice undertow, both of which intensify the freshness but also seem to bring herbal, spicy currents of energy. Fennel. Tarragon. Matcha. Very unusual and very elegant, especially for an Alsace Gewurz. At the heart, it’s golden and tropical; mangoes honey and cream. And then it floats in the finish, uncommonly delicate, like silver-tip tea.” 18/20pts jancisrobinson.com

Marc Tempé is the most unassuming, down to earth chap but his wines are out of this world! They are wines of amazing aromatic complexity and minerality which beautifully express their grape and terroir. Marc is surely one of the most talented winemakers in Alsace, so it is a huge shame that he has decided to sell his winery this year because his children do not want to move into the business.

As Tamlyn Currin MW so eloquently wrote in Jancisrobinson.com in February 2024:

“The Tempés make spellbindingly beautiful biodynamic wines, but (devastatingly) they are packing up – their kids don’t want to take over the business and it’s getting to the point where the intense physical labour of their work is taking its toll. Seek out and snap up their extraordinary wines before they are no longer made!”