Domaine Albert Hertz
Albert et Frédéric Hertz
It was in Eguisheim, in a house built in the middle of the 19th century, that the Hertz family settled in 1950. A wine estate and guest house, at the time the first in the village, today you can find 22 vintages, “all different and legitimate”, made by Albert and his son, Frédéric. The two men share the same philosophy of wine, “made first in the vineyard, not in the cellar”, and which must put the terroir first, and the grape variety second.
On the 9.5 hectares of vines that are now being cultivated, manual work, considered more precise and careful, is favoured. Synthetic products were totally abandoned in 1982 to introduce the first compost and ploughing. On his return from Beaune, after training as a wine merchant, Frédéric remembers not recognising the wines, “as if they had had their adaptation phase”. After AB certification in 2008, Demeter in 2011, the Biodyvin label was awarded in 2013, the year of Frédéric’s first vintage.
In the cellar, vinification is done with as little input as possible. In 2015, Frédéric proposed not to sulphite certain vintages, “to see how the wines evolve”. The conclusive results encourage the father to continue with this reflection, “always with caution”. For his part, after his experiences on two large biodynamic estates in New Zealand, and then with a wine merchant in South Africa, Frédéric is gradually taking his place on the family estate. Officially in the business today, the young winemaker is present in the vineyard without hiding his preference for the cellar and the business, which he has taken over. Encouraged by his father, Frédéric has recently been developing his own vintages.
Laurie Wendenbaum
