Our family winery extends over 16 ha along the beautiful Alsacian wine road. We cultivate 13 ha around Barr, Mittelbergheim and Heiligenstein. Moreover, thanks to our family history, we also have vines in Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr, creating a unique variety of terroirs and climates. This rich diversity of terroir allows us to offer a wide and exciting range of wines.
We produce more than 40 different wines, as we believe this enables us to show what our region can offer. We also want to show the capacity of our terroirs to make deep and complex dry wines issued from Grands Crus and Lieu-dits, as well as rich and intense sweet wines like the Vendanges Tardives and the Sélections de Grains Nobles.
Unfortunately, the majority of wines sold by big manufacturers contain additives and go through industrial processes to fix their shortcomings. Moreover, apart from sulphites, there is no legal obligation to mention these on the bottle. We strongly believe that high quality grapes require nothing else to produce amazing wine. This is why, 10 years ago, we started producing our range of “Nature” wine. Now totalling 11 different wines, each is unfiltered and contains no additives (e.g. sulphites). It is purely grape juice transformed into wine by the yeasts naturally found on our grapes. We are proud to show that if the grapes are of perfect quality and the winemaker is experienced, there is no need for any preservative at all.
We are committed to preserving our environment by promoting a winegrowing method that uses no synthetic products. We only use practices which preserve biodiversity and life in the soils. As pioneers in organic farming in our region, our whole vineyard has been certified Organic since 2000.
Our People
The heart of our profession
In the vineyard
Respecting nature
Our entire vineyard has been certified Organic since 2000. This means NO PESTICIDES, AND NO SYNTHETIC FERTILIZER OR TREATMENT.
We only use ploughs to limit the growth of weed which would otherwise build up a strong competition with the vines. We sow nitrogen fixing plants (legumes, mustard, field beans…) in order to naturally transfer nutrients thanks to the symbiosis with the vine. The wide diversity of plants also fosters greater biodiversity of animals, insects and microorganisms. Locally sourced manure is added every 3 years in order to feed the soil.
Protection of the vines is exclusively done using highly diluted amounts of copper and sulphur, silica as well as horsetail and nettle infusions. We use minimal levels and never use any synthetic product.
We do many meticulous tasks by hand: disbudding, trellising, partial leave removal, removal of early forming bunches… these allow optimal aeration of the grapes and limit yields. Because the roots of one vine can only give a set amount of nutrients to the grapes, limiting yield is paramount in order to get rich and concentrated fruits.
These rich and intense fruits, thanks to our hard labour, allow the wine to fully express the terroir and deliver fantastic ageing potential. This is of utmost importance when it comes to our most complex wines issued from Lieu-dits, Grands Crus, and of course Vendanges Tardives.
We have always harvested all our grapes by hand with our dedicated team of harvesters from our village. This enables us to select only the best grapes in perfect condition and optimal maturity.
In the Cellar
Let nature do its trick!
We are convinced that all the winegrower’s work is in the vineyard. The many hours we spend in the vineyard give us grapes of perfect quality, so the juice needs nothing else to make a great wine. With a width of 1.60m and as little as 1.30m for our older plots, our rows are narrow compared to many manufacturers. This of course requires a lot more attention and dedication while performing tasks in the vineyard, but this high vine density along with our yield management help each vine to produce intensely flavoured grapes.
Harvest is a crucial time and will set the final quality of our grapes and therefore of our wines. Each plot is harvested at optimal maturity, which is always a challenge.
The intact grapes harvested by hand, are vital to build up a slow and steady pressure in the wine press and extract a clear juice, containing all the rich aromatic components.
Once the grapes are pressed, we let naturally occurring yeast take over. Called “indigenous yeasts”, they are specific to each “terroir”. Fermentation therefore unfolds without any intervention or additive.
Once the fermentation is over, ageing of the wine is done over fine lees, in traditional oak casks. Ranging from 50 to 120 years old, our casks are old enough not to give any wood taint to our wines. This traditional container is ideal for the micro-oxygenation of the wine, letting it “breathe” through the wood fibres.
Thanks to our traditional methods, all our wines can age up to 7 years in the bottle and up to 20 years for our finest Grands Crus and Vendanges Tardives.
