Producer: Domaine Einhart

All his wines

Where?

A few kilometers from Rosheim, the small town of Rosenwiller has been practicing viticulture since the 6th century. It is located in the northern part of the Alsatian vineyard, at least in its main body, which follows the outline of the Alsace plain (the most northern Alsace is the enclave of Wissembourg, on the Palatine border). Rosenwiller currently has around forty winegrowers, including the long-established Einhart estate. The major organic turning point in the estate's history came in 1990, when Nicolas Einhart joined the family estate. He is now assisted by his son Théo. In 1997, Nicolas was one of the founding members of the TIFLO association, whose main commitments are the maintenance of ecological refuge zones and the rejection of harmful phytosanitary products. This dynamic naturally led him to convert his vineyard to organic farming in 2008 with a first production of AB-certified grapes in 2011. One of the main characteristics of the estate is the expressiveness of its wines, obtained by skin maceration - an Alsatian tradition in full renaissance after an eclipse of almost half a century (see also Jean-Marc Dreyer). This production method stems from both a desire to produce free and natural wines and a welcome return to traditional local methods, closely linked to the geography, history, and climate of Alsace.

Terroir, plots, and grape varieties

The ten hectares of plots of the Einhart estate are located on soils typical of the eastern Vosges foothills, an area of fracture between the Alsace plain, clay-limestone and marl with a layer of loess on the surface, and the Vosges reliefs with their rich mineralogy — sandstone, granite, gneiss, slate and schist. The soils are mainly clay-limestone from the Middle Triassic, with the presence of muschelkalk (limestone shell and oolitic limestone) and lettenkohle (limestone

Cultivation Methods

A great respect for the terroir and the balance of biodiversity is at the heart of Nicolas Einhart's approach. Everything is done to obtain healthy and balanced grapes, reflecting the characteristics of the clay-limestone soil, and to produce natural wines without any additives. In the vineyard, careful pruning is practiced, respecting the sap flow of the vine to ensure balance throughout its life cycle. Some vines at the end of their life are regrafted, which gives them a new lease of life and ensures the maintenance of the plot's plant material. From seeds produced on the farm, Fabaceae and grass cover crops are grown between the rows of vines. These plants improve the life and structure of the soil and provide organic nitrogen. To care for the vines, the family uses herbal teas made from plants they pick themselves.

Winemaking

As with the vineyard, the estate does not use any chemical additives in winemaking. The harvest is entirely manual and carried out only at dawn to preserve the freshness of the grapes. The bunches are destemmed, then ferment in contact with their own juice. Light hand punching down homogenizes the must and promotes the extraction of aromas. Pressing must preserve the raw material as much as possible: the flow of the juice by gravity into the vat limits human intervention and exposure to air. Each terroir is vinified separately in stainless steel vats, barrels or tuns (Alsatian specialty). Aging is done on lees to enhance and sublimate the complexity of the aromas. The wines are unfiltered.

The Wines

Nicolas Einhart produces natural white wines using skin maceration, in other words, orange wines, plus Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris reds. As mentioned above, skin maceration of white wines is an Alsatian tradition that was almost forgotten and is now making a comeback. This is fortunate, as it effectively conveys the complexity of the region's soils and grape varieties. Lively, powerful, expressive, always based on a tonic framework, the wines of the Einhart estate transcribe with precision the particular minerality of the soils of the Vosges foothills as well as the intention of its creators: to make wines from pure grapes.