The vertical tasting of Domaine Zind Humbrecht’s rieslings from the Rangen grand cru site in Alsace, France, earlier this month only went back to the 1978 vintage, but it was arguably the most remarkable vertical tasting I have attended in recent years. You see, although the Rangen has been cultivated since at least the early Middle Ages, just like the grand crus of Burgundy, paradoxically it is also a new site.
As far as anyone knows, no bottles of Rangen wine from before 1978 exist. This is because for a long time no wine was bottled. In fact, by the 1960s the great majority of the Rangen had fallen out of cultivation and it teetered on the edge of the abyss. What makes this situation extraordinary is that for many centuries before that it was one of the most famous vineyard sites in Alsace. These massive ups and downs say everything about the checkered history of the region that flip-flopped between being German and French. It has firmly been part of France since 1945.
What is so fascinating about the story of the Rangen’s rebirth is the fact that it is interwoven with the story of the grand cru system in Alsace and the new vineyard classifications of Germany and Austria. When Leonard Umbrecht of Domaine Zind Humbrecht purchased the last 3.5 hectares of vines in the Rangen in 1977, he was convinced that he had acquired one of the great forgotten terroirs of his region and Western Europe. The prospect of having to rebuild a semi-ruined vineyard came with this new territory.