Biodynamic. Eddy Faller explains that his Altenbourg Pinot Noir exhibits a more velvety structure than the Schlossberg-raised wine (below). To highlight each wine’s origins, the winemaking is almost identical, with a 10-day cold soak, followed by up to two weeks on skins, partial whole-bunch fermentation and extended aging in predominantly old oak. Plantings are 10,000 vines per hectare using mass selections from the Clos des Epeneaux in Pommard. To recycle Pigott’s line for the 2020 release, ‘In a blind tasting you could easily mistake this for a top 1er Cru wine from Beaune in Burgundy!’

This wine is named after this Schlossberg lieu-dit’s cadastral name, Au Château. The building referenced in the name is the iconic Château de Kaysersberg, whose ruins preside over the town and lie a stone’s throw from the western boundary of the Schlossberg Grand Cru.

With precious few bottles, we have yet to taste this release. However, Eddy Faller explains that the granitic soils give this bottling a more linear and ‘smoky’ mineral style compared to the rounder, more supple limestone-raised Altenbourg. Cropped from steeply terraced, pre-clonal era 1960s vines, it was fermented with 20% bunches and aged for two years in Burgundian barrels (20% new); Pigott’s note below reflects a terrific year for Alsace Pinot and the great strides Weinbach has made under the current generation.

Biodynamic in conversion. Now in its third vintage, this cracking field blend hails from a single vineyard beneath the Grand Cru Kaefferkopf, not far from the domaine. It’s on sandy-silt soils ideally suited to producing fresh, dry, early-drinking whites. The site is currently managed organically and is in conversion to both organic and biodynamic certification.

Prêcheur is a co-fermentation of five Alsatian varieties: 40% Riesling; 30% Auxerrois; 20% Pinot Gris; 5% Muscat; and 5% Sylvaner. The fruit was pressed as whole bunches and fermented wild in old oak vats. The wine spent eight months on lees before being bottled unfined.  Bustling with citrusy vibrancy, 2021 is a lithe, chiselled white with vibrant freshness counterpointing the wine’s enticing, fleshy summer fruit and floral prettiness. There’s signature Weinbach intensity, yet the wine feels uber-bright, with grip and balanced acidity alongside yellow-fruited length and light phenolic grip that draws you back to the glass.

Biodynamic. The standard of Weinbach’s Pinot has gone through the roof. There are now five single-vineyard Pinots in the range. The Clos des Capucins bottling leans towards early-ish drinking, with quality pitched towards the village-level wines of Burgundy. Stylistically, it can equally resemble the high-grown Pinots from the Jura or even the best German Pinots as much as those of the Côte d’Or.

The fruit fermented spontaneously with 20% bunches and spent about 20 days on skins. It was raised in mature Burgundy barrels for 14 months before being bottled unfiltered. The result is a beautiful expression of Pinot Noir, combining subtle tannins, refreshing texture and a mouth-watering, powdery close. This is very, very good—a unique and terrific alternative to Burgundy.

Biodynamic.  Primarily responsible for the Weinbach we know today, Catherine Faller’s mother, Colette Faller, was one of the legends of Alsatian wine. Sadly, Madame Faller passed away in early 2015 and, like her daughter Laurence and husband Théo before her, is now immortalised by a wine bearing her name. This cuvée comes from 50- to 60-year-old vines in the Bonnes Terres terroir, lower down on the Schlossberg slope, where the soils are deeper and sandier. The fruit here tends to be picked a touch later. Accordingly, the register of flavours is more intense, running from white flowers to tropical fruits and citrus fruit zest. The wine’s power is balanced by great freshness and verve.

Even though it comes entirely from Schlossberg, some of the vines fall outside the Grand Cru boundary, so it cannot be labelled as such. The domaine has applied for Premier Cru status. But no matter, it offers Grand Cru quality in the glass. This gorgeous dry Riesling was raised for 11 months in old oak casks and bottled unfiltered. 

Biodynamic. This cuvée is not only a memorable expression of Riesling, but it is also one of the great white wines of France. The fruit comes from five plots of 60-plus-year-old vines at the heart of the Schlossberg slope, where the sun exposure and granitic, mineral-rich soils beget a particularly deep, layered and profound dry Riesling.

The wine takes its name from the day of Sainte Catherine, which falls on 25th November. Early vintages were picked on or around that date, drawing their opulence and complexity from Alsace’s late autumn. Today, it can be picked as much as one month earlier. However, it remains the most extraordinary dry Riesling of the domaine. The winemaking is identical to the Schlossberg, but the terroir manifests with more intensity, focused concentration and mineral resonance. The wine was raised for 14 months in Weinbach’s old oval casks. The cream always rises to the top.

Biodynamic. The Schlossberg hill has long been revered as one of the world’s most outstanding Riesling vineyards. It’s a granitic outcrop that rises north of Kaysersberg and Kientzheim to an altitude of 230-350 metres. The quality of Schlossberg’s wines was established as early as the 15th century, and this was the first vineyard in Alsace to receive Grand Cru status in 1975. With their eight hectares, the Faller family are the largest landowners in Schlossberg. They make an extraordinary series of Rieslings from the hill, parcellated and bottled according to vine age and altitude.

This wine is from three of the family’s highest parcels of vines at the top of the slope (between 320 and 420 metres). The soils are shallow and rocky—very mineral—with eroded granite with a reddish tinge and a high magnesium content. This combination of altitude, low-vigour soils and paltry yields is potent and results in a deep, dry, mineral Riesling with intense freshness to balance the wine’s flesh. Twenty years will not weary it. 

Biodynamic. This stunning dry Gewurztraminer is drawn from a parcel of 40–50-year-old vines from the Wolfreben lieu-dit in the Kaysersberg valley between Clos des Capucins and the village of Kaysersberg. The soils are sandy silt over granite pebbles. Gewurztraminer in this terroir ripens early, producing wines with complex aromatics and powerful concentration.

With 10 g/L residual sugar, this is an explosively aromatic wine, redolent of white tea, pink pepper and peach skin. Although intense and viscous, it’s wonderfully refined, pure and savoury with classic Weinbach precision and detail. The juicy, driven finish is epic, studded with the mouth-watering freshness of orange zest and mineral steel. Although we would love to try this with the savoury/smoky tarte flambée—spicy Asian dishes should be the go-to.

Biodynamic. Dry. In Alsace, the term Pinot Blanc is used to describe varietal wines or blends containing any percentage of Auxerrois. Weinbach’s Pinot Blanc is a blend of 70% Auxerrois and 30% Pinot Blanc. For fellow nerds, recent DNA studies indicate Auxerrois is a cross between Gouais Blanc and Pinot Noir. Weinbach’s blend comes from Clos des Capucins (with 45-year-old vines) and a plot from the limestone/clay soils at the foot of the Altenbourg vineyard. As with the dry Rieslings, the Pinot Blanc was pressed as whole bunches and raised over eight months in large-format wood (previous vintages were raised in tank).

It's a far more layered and complex wine than you might expect from these varieties. It’s fleshy and mouth-filling with orchard fruits, white blossom and chamomile flavours and a textural core threaded through with punchy freshness. As with all these 2022s, it’s very hard to drink slowly!

This is our second shipment of Weinbach’s Sylvaner, drawn from old vines in the Clos des Capucins. Sylvaner may have fallen down the Alsatian pecking order in recent decades, but you could hardly tell that from tasting Weinbach’s example. Old, biodynamically tended vines and low yields are just two key components to the quality and style. The fruit was pressed gently as whole clusters, then fermented with indigenous yeasts (an element of the terroir that enhances depth and complexity in the wines) in old oak vats. Sylvaner boasts relatively high acidity, which works a treat with the early-ripening, sandy and rocky terroir of Capucins. The result is a deliciously fruity, taut, salivating white with complex aromatics and plush concentration.

A biodynamic Sylvaner among thorns, the 2022 opens with golden orchard fruits, aromatic salts and a twist of savoury herbs, while the palate is packed with silky fruit and balanced by a mouth-watering spine of crystalline acidity. Impressive length, too.

Biodynamic. Théo Riesling comes exclusively from the monopole Le Clos des Capucins—a vineyard that takes its name from the Capuchin friars who arrived in the area in 1619—at the base of the celebrated Schlossberg hill. The clos is well protected from winds by the surrounding hills and walls. The soils are sand, alluvial pebbles and granitic gravel. The low-cropping vines typically offer up a supple and pithy Riesling that is wonderfully accessible when young—a reflection of these sandy soils. As with all Weinbach dry Rieslings, this was pressed as whole bunches, fermented without any yeast additions, and matured in very old oak casks for, in this case, 10 months.