Vincent Gross 'Fantaisie' 2022

In 2019, I did a little seminar at the Lycée Viticole de Beaune, a sort of fast-track for international winemakers to do summer internships at European wineries. Most of us were staying in Burgundy, but there was this guy from New Zealand with crazy ginger curly hair, heading to Alsace. He was obsessed with extended skin-contact macerations, the kind of thing low-intervention winemakers had been doing there for years. Me, coming from the Canary Islands, I'd never met anyone so enthusiastic about skin-contact Gewurztraminer or Pinot Blanc. Every night we'd share bottles from our home regions or wines we just loved. And every night, he brought a skin-contact wine from Alsace.

I thought of him again while tasting this exact wine a few years ago at Restaurant Pompette (RIP!).

Domaine Gross is in the heart of Alsace, only a few kilometers from Colmar. A family estate dedicated to biodynamic philosophy. Rémy and Vincent Gross cultivate 10 hectares with a relentless commitment to tradition. Everything they do is macerated on its skins. 

Their Fantaisie is Gewurztraminer that has seen 25 days of maceration with the skins, 10 months on lees in old oak barrels. The nose is roses, spices, liquorice, ripe citrus. The palate is an explosion of spices, aromatic freshness, a saline finish that lingers. It's a Gewurztraminer that is wilder, stranger, more interesting.

I'd drink this with a fun Caribbean curry. While watching Fantasia.