Altenberg Grand Cru

Magic, dance, violin... sensuality on all levels. It is indeed a masterpiece of complexity that Altenberg builds, with this confounding regularity which is the seal of true Grand Cru terroirs
that is the hallmark of true Grand Cru terroirs.

Clay-limestone-sandstone soil, complantation of all the Alsatian grape varieties, in accordance with the decree
of appellation

Very complex colour, huge "tears", very fat.

- "Mental landscape": shimmering, overloaded, luminous landscape, divided between hot and cold, gold and blood.

- Mouthfeel: the proximity to Altenberg de Bergheim 2015 is incredible; we find the same
magic, this oriental sensuality expressed like a Byzantine palace, images and visual shocks on every
floor, behind every back door. The whole is carefully organised around two axes: the horizontal sedimentary axis
both limestone and clay - thin and thick - and the vertical crystalline axis testifying to the pink sandstones
and bringing lightness and drinkability.

- The port or the energy: there is no doubt in my mind that every bottle opened will be drunk... with
delectation!

The ALTENBERG DE BERGHEIM is located in the heart of the geological fault field of RIBEAUVILLE, which brings hard Jurassic limestone and Lias marl into contact. These fossil-rich formations have formed a poor clay-limestone soil, red (ferruginous ), rich in limestone rocks, where the vine must plunge deep to find its energy.

The micro-climate of the ALTENBERG, the result of its southern exposure, its distance from the Vosges front and its isolation from the Rhine plain, is terribly hot, dry and almost overexposed . The ripeness of the grapes, frequently amplified by Noble Rot, is out of the ordinary and imposes the domination of the Terroir over the planted grape varieties.

The return to the ancestral practice of the vineyard planted with all the traditional grape varieties and the single unsortedharvest opens up the Pandora's box of the "Grand Vin" at ALTENBERG

Jean-Michel Deiss:

"The production of this wine marks a stage in my life as a winegrower and a break with the primacy of the grape variety over the terroir, which Alsace has suffered so much from over the last hundred years.
The Terroir then becomes the conductor who controls and inspires all the players (rootstocks and grape varieties, all the conditions of the vintage and even the winemaker!) in the service of a unique score: the pure expression of the Terroir, the balanced symphony of the Grand Vin. This wine of synthesis thus revives the old Alsatian tradition of wines for ageing and travelling which, throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and up to the end of the 13th century, made possible the gigantic Rhine cultural effort of which modern Alsace is the result.

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