2022 Geschickt Riesling Holderbaum

WINEMAKER: Aurélie Fayolle & Arnaud Geschickt
REGION: Alsace, FR
VARIETY: Riesling
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

This wine from vineyards to the east and south-east of Ammerschwihr, including Holderbaum, Prediger and Birgele. Holderbaum, which is south-east of the village makes up 80% of the wine so it provides its name. 15% was destemmed and macerated in stainless steel. The remainder was direct pressed and fermented in stainless steel. The complete wine was then aged in foudre for one year. It contains some added sulphites (about 1.5g/hl added in spring).

Domaine Geschickt is an exciting producer from Ammerschwihr in Alsace just north of Colmar who have been farming biodynamically since 1998. The small village of Ammerschwihr lies in a beautiful valley that is quite close to the pleasant town of Colmar in a northerly direction and is surrounded by grape vines that include the Grand Cru vineyards of Kaefferkopf and Wineck-Schlossberg.

The domaine was established in the 1950s by Jérôme Geschickt (hence the name) and Bernadette Meyer. Eventually the domaine came under the control of Christophe Geschickt who was very interested in how the vines grew and how to manage the vines so that they produced the best possible grapes. This led him to introduce biodynamics in 1993 as the means to manage the vines. 

Fast forward to today and the domaine is now run by is now run by Aurélie Fayolle and her partner Arnaud (who is Christophe Geschickt’s son). They have continued with the biodynamic work introduced by Arnaud’s father and they also use horses in the vineyards to minimise the compaction of the soil.