By David Harker, Contributing Wine Editor
Alsace is a region with a unique history, geography and geology. A small wine region facing the global challenges of climate change, falling demand and increasing costs.
If Disney did wine regions they would look like Alsace. Pastel coloured houses line the narrow cobbled streets of villages tucked between towering hills. Hills covered by vines and crowned by castles.
Geological upheaval has sculpted in north east France a slim valley, seventy miles long and only a few miles wide. This is Alsace, squeezed between the river Rhine to the east and the Vosges Mountains in the west. A place where the best vineyards find shelter in the folds and foothills of the mountains and where the vines exploit a mosaic of soil, slope and aspect.
The beauty of the place belies its bloody past. In every fairy-tale village stands a war memorial, a solemn reminder that Alsace is no stranger to struggle. Across the Rhine is Germany and Alsace has frequently flipped between French sovereignty and German occupation. Today Alsace is French with a German character. A character reflected in its half -timbered houses, family names and tall flute shaped wine bottles.
Standing in a vineyard on a beautiful spring day as the first buds break – a sign of new life and hope for the year ahead, it is easy to forget that the winemakers of Alsace are again engaged in a struggle for survival. The threat this time is not from war or foreign occupation but the challenges of climate change, falling demand and increasing costs.
Jean-Michel Deiss is the third generation winemaker at Domaine Marcel Deiss. He is small in stature but strong in opinion. Bespectacled with a mop of curly grey hair and a mischievous smile Deiss looks like a sorcerer. A winemaker philosopher he is charismatic, persuasive and divides opinion.
Deiss considers himself a gardener rather than an oenologist. He says that his purpose is, “to bring joy by making wines that welcome you home.” To achieve this he believes the winemaker must renounce his ego and love his vines. After all he says, “a bottle full of love is empty of technology.”
To this end Deiss farms biodynamically. His vines are planted to a high density, forcing the roots to search deeper for nutrients. This lowers yields and increases the quality of the fruit. To identify the vineyard plots likely to produce the most desirable fruit he takes his cues from nature. He follows the instincts of animals, observing that, “the wild boar always selects the most desirable grapes.”
Deiss is also an advocate of co-plantation. He has randomly replanted his vineyards so that different grape varieties grow side by side. For Deiss, place takes precedence over variety, “terroir is eternal” he says. He preaches that when different varieties are planted together, if planted in the right place and carefully nurtured, then they ripen together. Their distinctive varietal characteristics disappear and instead the personality of place shines through.
To best understand these wines Deiss will invite you to taste the wines with your eyes closed. To taste and at the same time caress a piece of rock from the vineyard. Encouraging you to feel the texture of the stone, smooth or sharp and to reflect on the wine.
Whether or not you buy into the world according to Deiss there is no denying his success. What started as a small winery to supply the family restaurant has over forty years become a leading light in Alsace. A leading light and a philosophy attractive to vineyard workers who often stay on after the harvest, choosing to work in a winery with a sense of purpose.
Finding vineyard workers is difficult. In many family businesses the younger generation don’t want to work as winemakers. Not because of the work, but because the work doesn’t pay. Small wineries are failing because the market price for their limited output does not cover the rising costs of production. Increasingly it is only the larger vineyards that are commercially viable. Every day Deiss receives a call from a winemaker desperate to sell their vineyard.
It was a relief to Olivier Humbrecht, tenth generation winemaker at Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, when his son decided to join the family business. Olivier Humbrecht is a big amiable bear of a man. If the Deiss philosophy is an article of faith, then the Humbrecht world view is grounded in science. Humbrecht was the first Frenchman to gain the prestigious Master of Wine qualification and he is the best communicator of wine science that I have met.
Humbrecht’s science is sensitive to nature. He uses horses to plough and sheep to graze his steepest vineyard sites and has farmed biodynamically since 1998. He says that, “even if I cannot explain the science of biodynamics I am accepting of the evidence.”
Global warming and drought are forcing the winemakers of Alsace to make changes in how they farm. Humbrecht, for example, uses the vines canopy of leaves to create shade and limit soil evaporation. Harvest times too have shifted, from late October to at least a month earlier.
Humbrecht’s response to global warming is pragmatic. For him it depends upon having the resources available to harvest early and quickly. That means managing the logistics of having enough pickers on standby and the expense of have a second press.
Climate change also increases disease pressure. Humbrecht is particularly concerned by the spread of esca, a grapevine trunk disease that Humbrecht describes as, “the new phylloxera.”
Deiss and Humbrecht are very different personalities but they have much in common in their response to the challenges that winemakers face. They are both prepared to challenge conventional wisdom. Each of them is committed to working with a respect for nature and they are both passionately protective of their precious vineyards. They both adopt a low intervention approach in the winery and each of them has the skill to make premium wines from grapes that achieve ripeness without the loss of precious acidity. In Deiss and Humbrecht, Alsace has two prominent winemakers making outstanding wines in difficult times. But then history tells us that it has never been easy to be a winemaker in Alsace.
