Winegrowers and producers of organic Alsace wine
Le domaine bléger, A History of Passion and Terroir
The BLEGER Claude & Christophe estate is located at the centre of the Alsace wine route, at the foot of the prestigious Haut Koenigsbourg château, in a village of 650 inhabitants called ORSCHWILLER.
As an independent winegrower, we work 9 hectares of vines spread over 4 villages and around thirty different plots. We produce 75,000 bottles a year of the full range of Alsace wines (dry and sweet white, rosé, red, orange and sparkling).
Our fragmented plot structure means we can work on different types of soil. The expression of the terroir, combined with the richness of the seven Alsatian grape varieties, enables us to produce around twenty different cuvées a year.
To produce a good wine, you need a good grape.
Preserving soil balance for exceptional grapes
The estate’s vines are grown organically. We believe that this method of cultivation allows the vines to flourish and produce rich, complex fruit with a sense of terroir.
We use a very rigorous selection of vine plants, which, combined with high planting density and short pruning, means that each vine produces a small quantity of a very precious grape.
The soil is worked mechanically (ploughing), allowing it to breathe, which is essential for the development of microbial life and encourages deep rooting. The five to seven passes per year also enable us to control weeds, as we want to limit competition from the vines.
We don’t fight diseases, we simply try to avoid them, by stimulating the vine’s natural defences, or by using prophylactic measures. In the event of heavy pressure, we use natural and organic products.
To succeed in this work, manual labour is of course very important, and we have 3 full-time employees. But we also use certain mechanical tools that make our work easier, such as hydraulic interceps.
Making a great wine is an art that we take great pride in respecting.
After all this effort, it’s time to harvest the irreplaceable fruit of a year’s work: the grape harvest
At the estate, the grapes are harvested by hand when they are ripe, in order to sort the crop and avoid crushing, which causes the aromas to oxidise.
Pressing
Pressing is very important, as it can wipe out all the efforts made to date. That’s why we use the latest generation of pneumatic presses, which enable us to adapt the pressing programme to the physiological characteristics of the grapes. This programme must be long enough and at a low pressure to extract maximum aromas and complexity.
Fermentation
The juices are separated, statically settled and placed in casks. Fermentation is carried out using indigenous yeasts, which are the only way to produce a wine that is unique and far from standard. The temperature of the fermentation is regulated to ensure that it is long and peaceful.
Wine maturing
The wines are racked, then matured on fine lees. Eight to ten months later, our different vintages are filtered, bottled and stored for several months in our ageing cellar before being sold.
No tricks. Just the grapes, the time and our know-how. That’s how our wines are born: naturally, simply.
We have been working with organic farming for centuries
We have been winegrowers from father to son and daughter since 1630. Our family, originally from Switzerland, arrived in Alsace in the 17th century and settled at the foot of the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle. The area has long been renowned for its rich soil.
Over the generations, the family, which made a living from farming and livestock rearing, prospered and bought land on the slopes of Haut Koenigsbourg to develop the wine business, which took over from the others.
The estate has always worked organically, long before the word was even invented, and we are one of the few Alsatian houses to be able to claim and prove that we have always done so.
The early 1960s saw the intensification of agriculture and the introduction of chemicals (herbicides and fungicides). In the interests of profit, a large proportion of the vineyards were quickly won over by the promise of faster, easier work.
When Claude Bléger took over the farm when his father died in 1972, he didn’t believe in the future of these ‘revolutionary’ chemical products. So he continued to work naturally using the same methods as his father (ploughing, natural treatments, etc.). From then on, the estate was constantly criticised for its old-fashioned working methods. But the quality of the wines produced appealed to connoisseurs and medals from the most important competitions adorned the bottles. In the early 1990s, the European Union defined organic farming, and some winegrowers began to produce grapes from it. Claude didn’t believe in it, as many of these same winegrowers had been growing grapes intensively just a few years earlier, so he thought it was just a passing fad.
Since 2007, when Christophe set up his business, we have been certified Organic Farming by Ecocert, because he believes that Organic Farming is not a fashion, but a way of looking at life in the future. Today, in areas where intensive farming has taken place, we are seeing a real disappearance of species, which is unsustainable.
Today, Claude and Christophe are proud of their work, both in the vineyards and in the cellar. Many wine lovers come to visit them for a tasting of terroir wines, far from standardised products…
A commitment to quality and nature
At Domaine Bléger, the excellence of our wines is based on a profound respect for nature and a constant quest for quality. For several generations, we have been cultivating our vines in harmony with their environment, convinced that the richness of a wine begins with the soil that nourishes it. Our estate is certified organic, a strong commitment that guarantees practices that respect the soil, biodiversity and the vine’s natural cycle. We favour natural methods, banning synthetic pesticides and herbicides to preserve the purity of our grapes and the authenticity of our terroirs.
Vinification
that respects the grapes
Our hand-picked grapes, natural fermentation and minimalist vinification reveal the authenticity of the Alsatian terroir, producing pure, balanced wines full of character.
Sustainable and
responsible winegrowing
We cultivate our vines with respect for natural cycles, favouring tillage, controlled grassing, manual work and organic practices, thereby preserving the biodiversity and balance of our terroir.