André Durrmann is a winegrower who is making wine from his old family house in the middle of Andlau, a beautiful village nestled on the first slopes of the Vosges mountains south-west of Strasbourg.
A mere half an hour drive from downtown Strabourg, this village provides an immersion experience into the quiet Alsatian countryside, and as it is less tourist-oriented than the wine-route hot spots of Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr, you have a more authentic feel there.
André Durrmann took over the family winery in 1979 following the steps of his father and after a few years he has been exploring new ways to farm his surface, not only converting to organic but also doing things (-or not doing, in this matter) on the edge of permaculture, that is, leaving the ground unplowed and with all its grass, and training some of his vineyards on lyre for a better balance between the fruit load, the vines and the grass. He is now working on a total surface of 7 hectares.
The Facility is not big, and he’s having some interior remodeling done these days on the 17th century building so that the space can be optimized. The village houses have no underground cellars here because there’s lots of water beneath, so the vinification rooms and cellars are on the street level. These houses where he and his family are working were already registered in a plan dating from 1736 as being farm houses located outside of the Abbey of Andlau which was founded in 880 and protected by thick walls against invaders. Because of this abbey, viticulture and winemaking have of course very deep roots here.
With a surface of only 1,5 hectares at the beginning in 1979, the Domaine reached gradually a total surface of 7 hectares after André Durrmann bought back surface from his family or outside owners. His parents were already selling bottled wine since 1969 and there was a long lineage of winegrowers on his mother’s side while his own father was a cobbler.
André Durrmann manages the grass by both mowing it, but not very often actually. And he also puts his sheep in the vineyard in winter, not at other seasons because they could eat the stems, the vine leaves or the fruit. The rest of the time, the sheep stay at their lot at the beginning of the woods, very close from the vineyard. They were all there and waiting impatiently as André brought them a small loads of cherry-tree branches with their leaves… They have 16 sheep here, and there are a few lambs to kill for the meat. He just want to keep 10 ewes (female sheep). But they don’t make cheese, this is too much work in addition to the winery.
When you use the tractor to cut the grass, you need special, adapted tools to work under the lyre, because of the V shape of the trellis and this means another investment that conventional growers (both for the farming and the training) don’t have to pay for.
Against mildew and oidium he sprays copper and sulfur, using copper in low volumes, like 1 kg to 1,5 kg year/hectare when the organic rules allow much more. The grapes are hand picked but he still has to use a tractor to haul the boxes, even though he’d like not to so that the ground wouldn’t be crushed, but the tires are wide and the load of 800 to 9OO-kg doesn’t damage the upper soil.
He doesn’t trim the long branches of the vines with the lyre system, he just puts the hanging branch around the wire. He credits his son for the way they manage these branches, because he learnt that until 23 leaves on a branch, the sugar comes back to the grapes, and 23 leaves make about 2 meters. The problem when you cut this sky-reaching branch is that the vine has already worked hard to produce it, it’s energy has already been activated. These leaves work as solar captors and if you trim the branch, the vine will react by growing intermediary stems here and there, spending more energy to replace something that was there initially. Plus, the vine usually stops growing it more or less when it reaches 23 leaves, so they just leave the branches the way they are and put them by hand around the wires. An other positive side of this long leafy branch is that it protects the grapes against hailstorm damage. Speaking of accidents like hailstorm and frost, he says that the woods around the vineyard and also the trees scattered among the rows are playing the role of shock absorber against the extreme temperatures, thus limiting the frost risk. André plan to have in the future a tree every 10 meters, these trees will be pruned of course so that their canopy doesn’t hamper the vineyard and grape ripening, but they will help moderate the extreme cold and the extreme hot weather. He says that according a research made on this issue, it can make a difference of 3 ° Celsius in both cases. This moderation of the extreme temperatures also helps preserve the freshness of Alsace wines, at a time when (like with the last vintages) they tend to yield higher alcohol and tropical-fruit aromas more typical of southern-latitudes wines.
Domaine Durrmann wasn’t farming organic from the start, he stopped using herbicides in 1997 and became wholly organic in 1998. Today, Alsace sports one of the best ratio for organic farming with nearly 20 % of the surface farmed organic or in conversion to organic.
Durrmann says that he speaks regularly to organic farmers who grow other things like wheat or meat animals and they say that the productivity is sometimes surprisingly high even with using only organic treatments, which contradicts the thinking that organic means minimal yields. He adds that the planet could be fed by organic farming, actually. His own yields for example will be possibly around 60 or 70 ho/ha in some parcels, even if lower than the maximum of 80 ho/ha, and he doesn’t chaptalize which means that the grapes reach the right maturity. On the Grands Crus, his yields are of course lower as the maximum yield allowed was set at 55 ho/ha, in diminution from the previous years where it was at 60.
Meanwhile, their son Yann has taken over the estate, and more and more cuvées are now made entirely naturally. Unfiltered and without added sulfites. They also still make a few cuvées with sulfites, because they don’t want to alienate the large private clientele who buy at their door. But most customers respond positively, so they will steadily expand the natural range. Even Rieslings from Grand Cru vineyards are now being marketed as natural wines. Taste these alongside the sulfited version, and you’ll notice that the terroir is even more pronounced in the natural version!
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