Country: France
Region: Wolxheim, Alsace
Appellation: Appellation Alsace Protégée
Grape variety: 100% Gewurztraminer
Style: Maceration
ABV: 13.5% by vol.
Yield: 25ha/hl
Terroir: Limestone and Muschelkalk (shell-bearing limestone) gravel
Average age of vines: 35+ years
Farming: Dry-farmed, Fukuoka method. Certified organic.
Harvest: By hand
Vinification: Six-week maceration of select whole clusters, followed by pressed using gentle pneumatic press. Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts. No fining. No filtration.
Aging: 8+ months, 500L barrels
Sulfur added: None
Notes: The Muschelkalk—German for shell-bearing limestone—is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata stretching through central and western Europe. This Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million years) deposit originally formed in a land-locked sea, and its lenticular banks contain a plethora of fossil shells, found on the surface or subsurface. The vines of this particular parcel, like many of the domaine, are surrounded by woodland; thus Bruno terms it “the marine within the forest.”
Dry maceration, with light tannins and pronounced acidity characteristic of the millésime.