What's Pressoir Drinking - Easter in Alsace

by Justine Puaud
Thursday, April 21, 2022

Easter in Alsace

Living in France, I have the opportunity to visit all the different wine regions I love through their wines but never visited before. The region of Alsace was on my top list to discover this year. It is only 2-3 hours from Burgundy and it is such a unique and beautiful region. We have a huge diversity of landscapes in France in such short distances. I really thought I was in a different country for the weekend even if I only drove 180 miles.

The Route des Vins (wine route) between Colmar and Strasbourg passes through a string of picturesque villages, exceptional landscapes and castles built in the 12th century.

Last Saturday, we visited Domaine Weinbach. This estate is located in Kaysersberg, in the Schlossberg’s hill, one of the oldest and very recognized Grand Crus in Alsace. Built by the Capucin monks in 1612, the vineyards are mentioned for the first time in the year 890!

After the death of Théo Faller in 1979, his wife Colette and her two daughters, Laurence and Catherine, built with passion - in the masculine world of wine - one of the most prestigious estates in Alsace. They formed one of the most famous female trios of the French vineyard.

Laurence had the power to breathe a new life into the estate in the 2000s. She was talented enough to refine and reveal an amazing style of their terroirs which places their wines at the top. She tragically passed away in 2014 followed by her mother Collette one year later. Catherine Faller is now managing the estate with her sons Eddy and Theo.

Domaine Weinbach owns an area of 30 ha, cultivates a majority of world-renowned Rieslings, as well as Sylvaner, Pinot and Gewurztraminer. Their Riesling "Schlossberg" had been the first Grand Cru classified in 1973, among the 51 Grands Crus of the region.

The Grand Cru Schlossberg benefits from exceptional natural conditions, granitic rock with shallow sandy soils, a southern orientation and a steep slope ensuring optimal sunshine. This granitic terroir gives Riesling finesse and elegance combined with a very pure fruitiness.

I was really impressed with the quality of the Pinot Noir. When you think about Alsace you always think about white wine, Riesling and Gewurztraminer, but they also make elegant Pinot Noir.

We tasted the Pinot Noir cuvées from the terroir of Schlossberg. In Alsace, wines made from the Pinot Noir grape variety are not authorized to be called Grand Cru - this designation being reserved only for white grape varieties called "noble" which are Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurtztraminer and Muscat. An INAO commission is in the process of changing this. The Covid situation has slowed down the ongoing process, and this should be in place as early as next year.

Interview with Mathilde Grivot

June 12, 2020
by Eléonore Lafarge

Can you give us an overview of your domaine? How long have you been working at the domaine?

Domaine J.Grivot is a family estate in Vosne-Romanée. We farm 15 hectares (37 acres) spread in 18 appellations from Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Chambolle-Musigny and Vougeot. Regarding our work in the vineyard, we are farming sustainably all our vineyards. We make every decision according to what the plant needs and what the weather gives us.

As far as winemaking, we de-stemmed all our grapes. We love working with pinot noir. With this grape variety, we are always looking for precision, harmony, balance and freshness in our wines. We love to associate complexity, energy. We like when a wine gives you a thrill...

I started working at the domaine 10 years ago during the 2010 harvest! I have worked with my brother Hubert since that harvest and our parents, Etienne and Marielle are still helping us. Over the years, Hubert and I took more responsibilities. We added a new energy to the domaine while combining our parents’ experience. It's a very nice adventure. 

Did you make some changes in the vineyard and cellar work when you took over?

When I started working with my parents, our desire was to keep an evolution regarding the style of the wines. 

In the 90’s, my father worked on the stability of the wines as well as their ability to age and travel well. This can explain why his wines may have been a bit firm in their early years. When we taste them today, they are still young. In 1997, he focused on communication of the wines with his previous completions still in mind. At the end of the 2000’s, the new challenge was to keep the ageing ability associated with more precision, and more silky tannins while keeping the expressions from each terroir. I am thrilled to see the evolutions year after year. Wines combine freshness, precision, salinity and a graphite and juicy yet sappy side that I love!

In the vineyard, my father made many changes in the mid 80’s when he stopped using acaricides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. After this big change and a precise monitoring of our vines, we noticed a balance in our soils, a stability in the organic acids which allows us to reach perfect skin maturity and extract more without lacking acidity. 

Do you have new projects for the domaine? 

This has been a family domaine for 6 generations, it is important to us to keep its identity. All of my family members, my parents, brother, aunts and cousins all get along. It is important that everyone remains happy in this family structure. The ones working at the domaine as well as the rest of the family. 

The domaine has had a very good reputation for many years and we continue to establish our notoriety and make the wines evolve towards what we like: freshness, sophistication, energy and resonance. 

Have you always wanted to be a winemaker? What is an evidence to take over the winery or did it take a few years to realize you wanted to be a winemaker?

I have a nice story about this! When we were 8 and 10, my brother and I decided to take over the domaine together. When we told our parents, they were touched! And we never changed our minds!

I feel lucky to have this passionating job at an amazing location with dreamy appellations! I am the 6th generation to take over the estate and I am still fascinated by the complementarity of savoir-faire of my job. 

I was lucky to make vinifications in Pomerol at Vieux Château Certan as well as Domaine Drouhin in Oregon before coming back to Vosne-Romanée. These two amazing experiences made me more open-minded and taught me to always question myself. 

What is your favorite wine? Do you have a favorite vineyard to work in? 

I am not sure I have a favorite wine. What i know is that each wine has its own personality. Among our 18 appellations, some of them are soothing, some are dynamizing. I’m typically choosing the wine I want to drink according to how my day went.

For the last few years, we have been working on long growing seasons and a better extrability. The result of this work is wine with more body and more fruit. For example, we discovered incredible quality in our Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru “Les Pruliers” or in our Clos de Vougeot. We also found out that Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Chaumes” had a distinctive elegance and our Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Rouges” was unsuspectedly intense! 

Do you have a particularly memorable wine tasting experience ? 

A part of our vineyards belongs to my grandmother’s sister, Jacqueline Jayer. She kept wines from her winemaker’s years and she shared a bottle of Echezeaux 1947 a few years ago. 

With this complicated situation, can you still work in the vineyards and the cellar?

Covid-19 made everything more difficult. At the domaine, we adopted safety precautions. Now everyone uses their own tools and we practice social distancing in the vineyard. 

As winemakers, we are lucky to have this opportunity because Nature doesn’t wait! 2020 is an early vintage. With our team, we have been able to take care of our vineyards. We are not working in the cellar at the moment since the 2018 vintage is already bottled and the 2019 vintage is still in barrel. 

What is being done in the vineyards and the cellar right now?

The flowering is now over in all our vineyards and we are enjoying perfect weather. The vegatative cycle is harmonious but we’re three weeks early on schedule!  

Right now, we are doing what we call “relevage”. We place the vegetation in the double wire in order to guide it upright. The vine is a creeping plant that would naturally grow on the ground if we didn’t do this.

We also plow our vineyards to eliminate weeds using either a tractor or a horse.

Is it more complicated for a woman to be a winemaker?

Even though there are more and more women managing domaines, it is not easy everyday! We always have to prove that we are able to do it. 

However, I like this challenge. I have a warrior temper and associated with the finesse and feminine sensitivity, it gives great results. We are complementary with men and I think it is important to use everyone's strengths to succeed. This is what my brother and I do and it works very well.

Does climate change make it more difficult to work in the vineyards now compared to the generations before? Later frost? More hail? 

For the last few years, winters are warmer and it tends to kick off the beginning of the growing season at an earlier stage. Summers have been drier and warmer. This makes us reflect on the behavior of the vine in the face of this. What is certain is that we are getting better maturities now than in the 90’s. Since we started with my brother in 2010, we haven't had a bad vintage in 10 years ... We have had early vintages, like 2011 or late vintages like 2013 but no vintage with grapes of poor quality.