Biodynamic Alsace, part2

This is part two of an in-depth feature on Biodynamic and organic wine producers in Alsace. There is a link to part one at the bottom of this page.

Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss

I was met in this beautiful old cellar in the middle of the village of Andlau by Marc's son, Antoine Kreydenweiss, who has completed his winemaking studies in Burgundy to join the family team. The estate has been biodynamic for 17 years, making it one of the earliest adopters. For the custodian of a family estate that was establish 350 years ago, Marc Kreydenweiss's radical move to biodynamics is echoed in other areas that suggest an ambitious and restless approach: in 1999 Kreydenweiss took over an estate in Costièrs de Nîmes in the southern Rône Valley which is now also certified as biodynamic. Biodynamics appears to be a deeply held philosophy, rather than a commercial convenience for Kreydenweiss, who farm 12 hectares, including three Grand Cru sites. Around 80 per cent of the annual 70,000-bottle production is exported. The USA is their top market.

In the cellar things are very traditional in this house, with the hand harvested grapes being crushed in modern bladder presses, but then fermented with natural yeasts in large foudres made from local Vosges oak. Antoine says his father experimented with barriques in the 1990s, but soon concluded it did not suit his wines, so they stick with the Foudres. They are also sticking with cork for now, but paying more and insisting on strict testing and certification from suppliers after a bad cork experience for their 2000 vintage.

As well as a very natural approach to vineyards and cellars, Kreydenweiss is an arch believer in terroir, and Antoine talks with an inherited passion about the five different soil types found within the domaine's vineyard sites, from the schist and granite of their Kastelberg Grand Cru, to the pink sandstone of the Wiebelsberg Grand Cru - the two sites separated only by the road that runs through the vineyards.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Kritt Pinot Blanc 2004
From a quartz-rich vineyard. Softly honeyed nose, delicate dried apricot notes and a touch of oxidation. The palate is steely and dry, with some mealy, herbal qualities and a dry apple fruit.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Andlau Riesling 2004
Vosges soils, sandstone. Lovely nose, waxy components and a buttery richness, with quite fat lime fruit and a touch of apricot. The palate is much steelier and sleek than the nose suggests, with an absolute blast of lemon fruit and a dry, pithy finish. Very long and crisp, needs food but lovely.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Clos Reberg Riesling 2003
Schisty soils. Smoky and mineral nose, with a touch of petrol and a slightly rotted orange quality. The palate has a lot of sleek, pure mineral and hard white fruit, with apple and lemon dominating. A nice taut acidity and a suggestion of sweetness counterbalanced by dry, pith acidity. Good concentration and length.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Wiebelsberg Riesling Grand Cru 2003
Lovely sense of richness here, with plenty of oatmeally, honeyed richness, and a more forward, rich, supple nectarine fruit character. A touch of sweetness, with a much softer, much more giving style of ripe, quite exotic peachy fruit and a much softer acidity. Fine orange quality to the acidity. Very approachable, but less structured.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Kastelberg Riesling Grand Cru 2003
Second smallest Grand Cru, with six owners. Quite a rounded lime nose, with some softness. The palate here is quite racy, with a cool melon and underripe pear and apple quality of dry white fruits. The plate picks up a touch of honeyed, figgy ripeness (even a touch of botrytis) , but the acidity is nice and keen-edged, giving a lot of orange and some minerality in the finish.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Clos du Val d'Eleon 2002
50/50 Pinot Gris and Riesling blend, blended before alcoholic fermentation. Lovely honeyed, touch of toffee and caramel, with a very buttery quality. On the palate this has lovely freshness, with a racy lemon edge but juts a hint of fatness on the palate, with good fruit and weight, but an overall lean and racy quality.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Clos Reberg Pinot Gris 2002
Smoky, rich and spicy nose, quite a fat apricotty fruit, with a toffeed quality. The palate has lots of ripe melon, pear and rounded white fruits, but lovely freshness too, with plenty of racy acidity counterbalancing and freshening quite rich, full fruit.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Moenchberg Grand Cru Pinot Gris 2003
Rich, quite exotic fruit on the nose, with a hint of minerality and steeliness. On the palate this is off dry, with sweet pear fruit and a counterbalancing, dry and quite pithy lemon and grapefruit acidity. Finishes with plenty of tang and crispness, but acidity comes in touch abruptly.

Marc Kreydenweiss (France) Wiebelsberg Riesling Grand Cru Vendange Tardive 1997
Lots of wax and light petrolly notes mixed with a touch of honey and a definite sense of schisty minerality. On the palate it is quite light and juicy, with a clean, fresh, nicely balanced acidity playing against quite lush fruit. Nectarine and apricot is to the for, with a much more resolved, seamless marriage between the ripe, sweet fruit and residual sugar, and the clean, supple acidity. Lovely, tangy and delicious.

See current stockists of Kreydenweiss on wine-searcher.

Domaine Remy Gresser

Remy is a gentle giant of a man who farms his 11 ha biodynamically. He is currently in the process of certification, is one of many here who is also a pragmatist: "it's pretty straightforward for me. I cannot always harvest on the fruit days (as opposed to the days for roots, leaves and flowers) because I don't have the manpower or machinery to do so, and I can't stop my next door neighbour who sprays his chemical treatments by helicopter - some of that must carry to my vines." As if to illustrate this point, made as we were bumping through the vineyards in his Land Rover, we pass his neighbour, where a worker in protective overalls and face-mask is spraying from a back-pack pump, the canister's bearing the word 'TOXIC' in bold, black letters.

Remy is also worried that Demeter, the international biodynamic organisation, is making a new rule on use of sulphur, that states the total sulphites allowed in a wine will be 150mg per litre, whereas now the legal limit is 400. He thinks this is impossible for his Botrytis wines: "at 150mg my SdGNs will re-ferment in a container going across to the USA and they will be rejected. 150mg is simply not enough to guarantee this won't happen."

Remy Gresser (France) Duttenberg Sylvaner 2004
Pleasant fresh pear nose, with some skinny phenolics. The palate is a touch phenolic too, but with a nice freshness, with lots of pear fruit and good acidity.

Remy Gresser (France) Kritt Pinot Blanc 2004
Rather dank, a tiny bit sulphury, with some nettle aromatics and more skinny character. This has decent fruit on the palate, but it is not particularly fruity. Fresh, and quite pleasant.

Remy Gresser (France) Kritt Riesling 2004
Light, fresh and clean on the nose, with crisp apple fruit. On the palate it is very straightforward and fresh, with crisp lemon and apple fruit and good balance. Very pleasant.

Remy Gresser (France) Duttenberg Riesling 2004
More mineral and salty character, with dry lemon and white fruit character. Palate has more nervosity, with a shimmering core of lemon and mineral acidity and very crisp fruit. Light to medium bodied, but a nice long finish.

Remy Gresser (France) Riesling Grand Cru Weibelsberg 2004
Mineral and quite leafy character, with an appealing hint of complexity. A touch less austere than the Duttenberg, with a little hint of sweetness and fullness, but then very keen, crisp acidity really cuts through the finish leaving it dry, but long.

Remy Gresser (France) Riesling Grand Cru Kastelberg 2003
A more developed nose, with a hint of petrol and that lime skin, waxy character. The palate has a little richness, but the acidity here is very good, with a clean, pure acidity and that waxy richness.

Remy Gresser (France) Riesling Grand Cru Moenchberg 2000
Quite a dark colour, with a touch of nutty, marmalady oxidation and overripe buttery character. Very pure, quite full, waxy Sharon fruit flavour, with a fine backbone of acidity holding it together. Dry and savoury, but with fullness.

Remy Gresser (France) Riesling Grand Cru Moenchberg 1985
Lovely waxy complexity here, with notes of cold tea and ripe, full apricot fruit. A nutty, Cox's Pippin intensity too. The palate is quite austere, with just hints of honey and stone fruits swept along by a rush of very mineral acidity. Tangy and long, this still has a lovely freshness and good balance.

Remy Gresser (France) Muscat Brandhof 2005
Beautifully fragrant, grapy and floral quality is classic Muscat. A touch of plum and apricot fruit. Very nice balance on the palate, with enough fruit and a just off-dry character, with lovely but gentle acidity. Very moreish.

Remy Gresser (France) Pinot Gris Brandhof 2004
Quite a crunchy character to this wine, with very crisp apple and pear fruit. The palate is just off-dry, with a pleasant fullness and silky ripeness of fruit. The balance is lovely in a very easy drinking wine.

Remy Gresser (France) Gewurztraminer Kritt 2005
Nicely aromatic and classic, with gently rose and lychee character, and very fresh and grapey. The palate has good sweetness (8gl) and a thick, quite unctuous character. The spice really comes through, and the fragrant nature of this. Lovely quality.

Remy Gresser (France) Duttenberg Gewurztraminer Vieilles Vignes 1998
Quite a honeyed, full, nectarine fruit on the nose, with a palate that is really vivacious, with a beautiful, very distinctive palate that is almost like mango or guava juice, with lots of orangy acidity and fine, fine length. Terrific.

Remy Gresser (France) Andlau Gewurztraminer Vendange Tardive 1999
Very lovely, delicate honey and leaf tea aromas with a background of floral, rose scents. The palate has beautifully judged sweetness: the purity is key here, with a toffeed, rich, pure fruit palate wrapped with a sheen of honey and vanilla, and with a lovely pithy, dry grapefruity acidity that is nicely harmonious. Delightful.

Remy Gresser (France) Riesling Grand Cru Weibelsberg Vendange Tardive 1997
A tiny bit of nutty oxidation, but lovely Botrytis richness, with fig and quince, and plenty of honey. On the palate this is delightful, with a clean, rounded, fruity character remaining, but there is also lovely minerality. Long and delightful.

Remy Gresser (France) Riesling Grand Cru Moenchenberg SdGN 2000
Quiet dark. Fully Botrytised nose, with dripping honey and barley sugar character. Thick dried apricot fruit and hints of ripe fig. On the palate this has lovely weight and full texture, with a luscious thickness of nectarine juice and honey, and some of that leaf tea and tobacco background. Lovely acidity here - more mineral than citrus, and very long and cleanly balanced.

Remy Gresser (France) Riesling Grand Cru Kastelberg SdGN 1999
Really dark buttercup/gold. Extra concentration with dried apricots, honey, orange and marmalade, and a herbal quality that is lovely. The palate is very ripe, rich and almost oily, but there is fantastic precision to this wine. What ;lovely character, With hints of toast and fabulous balance. Moenchenberg is perhaps slightly more vivacious, but this is decadent and terrific.

See current stockists of Remy Gresser on wine-searcher.

Domaine Ostertag

André Ostertag is one of the superstar producers in Alsace, who is as radical as his wines are excellent. His 14 hectares are all farmed biodynamically, and include over 120 different vineyard parcels covering five villages, from which he produces 17 different wines. Since 1984 André has rejected official classification and instead created his own: Vin de fruits (wines that he thinks do not express a specific terroir in green bottles); Vin des Pierres ('stone' wines in brown bottles - terroir specific wines); Vin de Temps (sweet wines in clear bottles, 'Temps' indicating both time spent on vine and the right weather conditions).

This is a young estate, started by Andrés's father in 1966. As I arrived at the winery just as the heavens opened for a storm, we retired to the tasting room but did not see the vineyards. That was a pity, as André has a mesmerising enthusiasm for terroir, and says that for him, apart from the "The German green party conscience", the biggest influence on his decision to farm organically, then biodynamically (since 1997) was when a large nuclear power station was built in southern Alsace. "Bio/organic is not a marketing ploy it is felt much more deeply than that - especially by my generation. The question is, 'can we save the world by this act?'"

For all that he too is pragmatic, André also grasps the more esoteric aspects of biodynamism: "My main influence is the moon phases - the moon is the dictator of water, so I work with tidal charts: at low tides I might rack, at high tides it is good for fermentation and everything is very active in the winery." He believes that biodynamism is as much about faith as science: "Some Biodynamic principles are not explainable, but that does not necessarily mean there is no explanation: sometimes we just don't know what the explanation is: I cannot explain why preparation 501 makes plants climb to the sky, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work: you can see the impact when you use it. 500 makes a plant much more able to cope with drought - I don't know why, but I've seen it happen with my own eyes."

The radical approach extends to the cellar. André was one of the first in Alsace to barrique ferment and age, and almost all wines are made in barrique, even though oak influence is very moderate - partly due to using only Vosges oak - which has small cells, and a dense structure - and very lightly toast. "The power and quality of the fruit means oak does not dominate."

Domaine Ostertag (France) 'Fruit' Vieilles Vignes Sylvaner 2005
33 - 70-year old vines, two hectares of it. Lovely peach down and apple skin fruit. Delicate floral notes. The palate has a bit of real concentration, with a grippy note and a forceful character, with really nice fruit through a solidly packed mid palate with lemon skin and orange zest acidity in the finish. Delicious.

Domaine Ostertag (France) 'Fruit' Pinot Blanc 2005
Barrique fermented and aged 50/50 Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois, in 10 per cent new oak. Oak is not too dominant, adding a little fat perhaps to very clean, crisp orchard fruits. The palate is dry and savoury, with clean, pure very mouthfilling but precise fruit character. Some spice comes through, in a lovely, rich wine with lovely balance.

Domaine Ostertag (France) 'Fruit' Pinot Gris 2004
25% new oak in a barrel-fermented and aged wine. Rich plummy, pear skin fruit with a depth and little smoothing overlay of vanilla. On the palate this has a rich, full texture and a certain creaminess, with fat textured pear and melon fruit, and a serious core of mineral and lime concentrated acidity.

Domaine Ostertag (France) 'Stone' Pinot Gris Zellberg 2004
40% new oak. Similar nose, with apple and pear skin qualities, and a certain waxy richness. Again, the oak influence is not overpowering. Lovely sense of sweetness of fruit, with a rich, rounded quite spicy character. Chalky, clay and sandstone character. 11 months in oak.

Domaine Ostertag (France) 'Stone' Heissenberg Riesling 2004
All stainless steel, the vineyard name means 'hot mountain'. Lovely lime and blossom-scented wine, with very pure, quite fat and ripe apple fruit. On the palate the purity and beautiful limpidity comes through. The acid is very mineral and has a pith lemon zest life about it. Lovely length and minerality.

Domaine Ostertag (France) "Stone" Muenchberg Grand Cru Riesling 2004
Lovely yellow colour. This has a glorious nose, with very fine Riesling character, with some herbal and nutty apple notes, a twist of citrus and a fine stony minerality. On the palate it has some richness and fat in the texture, with wonderfully ripe, almost tropical fruit notes, and a searing core of beautifully generous but firm and precise acidity. This has wonderful structure and wonderful complexity with sweet layers, wonderful juiciness and a lovely sour edge of grapefruit and underripe plum or greengage. Fabulous.

Domaine Ostertag (France) 'Temps' Muenchberg Grand Cru VT 2004
Picked only eight days later than the wine above in this vintage. There is fine honey and lemon lusciousness, very thick and limpid, with fantastic honeyed ripeness.

Domaine Ostertag (France) 'Temps' Gew�rztraminer Frohholz VT 2004
Brilliant nose (picked third week November) with huge luscious, honeyed ripeness, but not masking the spice and lychee flavour of the Gewurz. Terrific quality. The palate is beautifully rich and ripe, with scintillating balance and precision to the flavours, with floral, spice and lychee and guava fruit, and beautiful definition of grapefruit flavour and acidity.

See current stockists of Ostertag on wine-searcher.

Barmes-Buecher

Genevieve Barmes kept me entertained whilst husband Francois made his way back from the vineyards on his tractor. The 16 hectares of Barmes-Buecher spreads over 70 parcels, and was founded in 1985. It has been fully biodynamic only since 1998, and they never inoculate with yeasts, don't fine and don't filter. As Francois says: "I do nothing in the cellar: I'm always outside in the vineyards."

They started a gradual process of conversion to organic and biodynamic in 1985, but say it took a while to build up the confidence to go fully biodynamic, especially with their neighbours saying "but your vines are dying!" when they saw the characteristically 'unhealthy' appearance of biodynamic vines against the pumped-up beauty pageant perfection of the average chemically treated vineyard.

The couple say their principal motivation for the switch to biodynamics was Francois's years of working with chemicals in vineyards: "I just realised that if they were dangerous to humans, then how could they be good for the vines and the wines?" Francois says he also remembers having problems with stuck fermentations, and having to add lots of sulphur to clean up wines. He realised there must be a problem with the raw materials in the vineyard. Today he uses one-third the sulphur that he used to.

Again, there is more thoughtful tinkering with biodynamics here rather than blind acceptance: Francois racks wines made from fruitier grapes (like Muscat) on a fruit day of the lunar phases, and his more 'serious' wines like Riesling on a root day, believing that enhances the minerality of the latter.

Barmes-Buecher (France) Pinot Blanc Rosenberg 2004
Fairly restrained, quite nutty apple and pear fruit. Quite spicy, with plenty of powerful fruit o the palate. Very savoury and juicy, with plenty of apple fruit and a big sour lemony core that adds elegance, with lots of orangy acidity and a grippy touch of phenolics in the finish. Little smoky notes. 87

Barmes-Buecher (France) Riesling Rosenberg 2004
A lightly toffeed nose, with small waxy, notes with plenty of lemon fruit and a rounded, crunchy apple fruit. The palate has a fat, juicy lemon fruit, with plenty of dry, pith acidity in a full, but clean and deliciously straightforward Riesling, that has lovely concentration and balance. 88

Barmes-Buecher (France) Riesling Clos Sand 2004
Quite a rich, mealy quality on the nose, with dry white fruit qualities: melon, underripe pear, and apple. The palate is full and rich, with a lot of pithy, dry lemon fruit and a full, rich texture. There is real minerality and a steely, stony seriousness here: these are much less 'fruity' and more for ageing. 90

Barmes-Buecher (France) Riesling Leimenthal 2004
A touch of sulphur blows off to show a very stony, mineral character and subdued, dry white fruits. The palate here is even more focused and aesthetic, with lean, savoury, lemon and white fruit notes subsumed by a dry minerality. Very fine, with excellent length and a composed, serious character. 90

Barmes-Buecher (France) Riesling Grand Cru Steingrubler 2004
Quite a dark colour, and a very tight, ungiving nose at present, with herbal notes and a real sense of restrained power and depth. There's a toffeed, sweet element in the mouth, with pear fruit and a touch of underripe yellow plum: these are really powerful wines, and this has some waxiness and a very grippy finish with good phenolics and mineral acidity. Long and just off dry (11% RS) 92

Barmes-Buecher (France) Riesling Grand Cru Hengst 2004
Similarly tightly bound, brooding power evident on the nose here: clearly a big, concentrated and powerful wine that is in its infancy. Lemon and mineral notes, with a cool, stony, river pebble minerality. On the palate this has a really racy character: it is tight and pithy at present, with a lemon zest twist of waxy power and quite a full, rich texture into the finish. Very tangy and decisive, but still retaining elegance. 93

Barmes-Buecher (France) Pinot Gris Rosenberg 'Silicis' 2004
Again quite composed and tight, with some orangy notes and a definite edge of smokiness, but quite reserved. The palate has fine lemony fruit and is really tight and reserved. 90

Barmes-Buecher (France) Pinot Gris Rosenberg 'Silicis' 2002
Wonderfully toffeed, rich, with a peaty, smoky character and total transformation after two years extra in bottle. On the palate lovely richness and a little more sweetness (19g/l as opposed to 2.7 in 2004) with fine, honeyed, rich stone fruit flavours but still that lovely firm mineral acidity running through like a spine of steel. 92

Barmes-Buecher (France) Pinot Gris Rosenberg 'Calcarious' 2004
A slightly more herbal, smoky quality apparent immediately, with good fruit coming through. A little more open than the Silicis. Lovely richness here, with terrific sense of richness and sweetness. There is a burgeoning sense of opulence to this wine, but that wonderful spine of minerality and pithy, dry lemon acidity keeps it terrifically focused. Fabulous. 93

Barmes-Buecher (France) Gewurztraminer Winzenheim 2004
What a beautifully delicate rose petal fragrance. No lychee or very flamboyant notes, but a very delicate spice and fresh, peachy fruit. The palate has lovely weight and a rich texture, with fine sweet fruit, but such lovely balancing acidity - not harsh or pithy, but very precise and focused. Beautiful wine. 91 23g/l

Barmes-Buecher (France) Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Steingrubler 2004
Much more powerful, much more mineral, with a real expression of terroir rather than grape. Tight and focused. Weighty, waxy, but slightly less full than the Winzenheim, but with a lovely sweetness coming through. Far less 'gewurzy' in terms of fruit character, but has the hallmarks fused with minerality and vegatility. Extremely fine and serious expression of Gewurz. 92

See current stockists of Barmes-Buecher on wine-searcher.

Valentin Zusslin

Brother and sister Jean-Paul and Marie Zusslin extend a truly warm welcome to their small cellar, which has been in their family since 1691 in the village of Orschwihr. Jean-Paul is in charge of winemaking, but with his father Jean-Marie and his 80-year-old grandfather are still very active - indeed both were busy on the sparkling wine disgorgement line at the time of my visit.

Jean-Paul is 13th generation to work this estate, which has been biodynamic since 1997. He says his motivating factor was concern about pollution and climate change, and a desire to stop using chemical. The estate is a members of Nicolas Jolly's group Renaissance de Appellations.

We drove up into the vineyards to see the biodynamic compost pile, a mound of rich, thick, friable and dry material. Jean-Peal picks grapes very late, often with two or three passes though the vineyard. Very long fermentation and ageing on fine lees follows, and there is no acidification or capitalisation, and only natural yeasts and Demeter's charter on sulphur are followed.

Valentin Zusslin (France) Pinot Auxerrois Vieilles Vignes 2004
Many parcels, but average age of 30 years+ Very attractive, honeyed nose with some lightly toasty character and quiet forward peachy fruit. Lovely sweetness on the palate, with terrific fruit sweetness, a ripe nectarine and peachy ripeness and fine, racy acidity. Lovely easy drinking, but nicely focused and balanced wine with lovely length. 8g/l.

Valentin Zusslin (France) Riesling Bollenberg 2004
Very ripe, rich, quite buttery and honeyed quality. Palate has a nuttiness and peach kernel quality, with very nice fruit and a lovely core of fat, lemony and waxy fruit, with some lemon and a certain minerality in the acidity. Lovely, very dry.

Valentin Zusslin (France) Riesling Clos de Liebenberg 2002
Extremely dry, lemony, very firm fruit quality here, with a fairly closed nose, but a buttery ripeness comes through on the palate. Very steely core to this wine, but the fruit is quite bright and orangy, with a tangy, fresh finish and good length. A step up in intensity (though from a different year,

Valentin Zusslin (France) Riesling Grand Cru Pfingstberg 2002
Only 28 hl/ha yield. The nose has a very composed, firm white fruit character with a hint of honey and lovely ripeness. The palate has a racy, lime and lemon fruit character with a fatness and waxy richness. But the minerality and almost salty dryness comes though into a very long finish.

Valentin Zusslin (France) Muscat Cuv�e Marie 2003
On average 25-year-old vines. All Muscat Ottonel, not Muscat d'Alsace. Very attractive, expressive sherbet and floral character. Very nice character, with a lovely fresh, grapey, very lively and vibrant, with a decisive core of acidity that makes it seem quite dry and very focused in to a grapefruity finish. Lovely

Valentin Zusslin (France) Pinot Gris Clos de Liebenberg 2003
Some plum and nectarine skin richness and quality, with plenty of texture on the palate and a very appley and slightly herbal richness with grip and texture and a smoky. Very nice, powerful wine but elegant and racy.

Valentin Zusslin (France) Gewurztraminer Bollenberg La Chapelle 2002
Very nice buttery, perfumed style with some gentle floral notes and a ripe, quite juicy peachy style of fruit. This is structured and dry in the finish, with lots of spice and a bit of alcoholic heat, but lovely balance and real power and structure.

See current stockists of Zuzzlin on wine-searcher.

Go to part I.