Biodynamically farmed for 22 years now, Domaine Ostertag is one of those places whose virtues are so simple, strong and enduring that you kind of forgets to mention them. Conviction and constancy hold sway in the family’s farming. They follow the season, follow the vine, follow nature – and thus the spirit and vital wines flow.

Clos Mathis gives birth to classic, distinguished, long-lived Rieslings. Some aspects can make it seem austere in its youth, the structural elements (acidity, mineral tannins) in the foreground while textural and aromatic elements are rather timid, but with time the Clos Mathis becomes a sappy, classically dry wine in the breed of greatest Alsatian Rieslings.

In 2018 the hand-picked grapes were gently pressed with the whole bunches for about nine hours. The wine ferments spontaneously in stainless steel tank and is kept on its gross lees until a couple of weeks before bottling. It was bottled in early September 2019 with a balance of 13.5% alcohol and 2g/L of residual sugar. – Arthur Ostertag