Marc Tempé (Alsace)

Marc Tempé, outside his winery Zellenberg, Alsace
Zellenberg is located in southern Alsace north of Colmar [click on the satellite photo to enlarge a bit and locate Zellenberg, then enlarge at the max, you can even see the fountain], on the first slopes of the Vosges mountains. Less flashy than touristic gems like Riquewir or Ribeauvillé, this small village is quiet and devoid of tourists. We arrived a few minutes in advance under a light drizzle and I shot a few pictures like this one of the public fountain facing Marc Tempe's house and winery (pic on left : this is the grey house in the middle). I first came into contact with Marc Tempe's wines in a wine bar in Paris where I began with his Edelzwicker Alliance and This native Alsatian who made his first wine in 1993 was since then on my must-visit list for Alsace (I didn't have enough time to visit more this time but I should later this year, I have a serious backlog here...).
Marc Tempé excuses himself about the mess as we enter the tight space of his old winery, but the place is so beautifully authentic that whatever mess may show up here or there can't impair with the general feeling of amazement in front of the vibes of the cellar that we are soon going to walk into. After we pass a couple of rooms full with pallets of crates ready for the delivery truck, empty stainless-steel vats, a bottling line, a press and all sort of tools, we arrive at a door opening on a semi-underground cellar. Marc Tempe says that the situation is a bit complicated [as often in Alsace because of lack of room in the old village houses] and he has his facility spread on three locations : the first cellar here, another one in the next building and a third storage facility a couple of kilometers away.
If this Alsatian village was founded in the 10th century by monks, this particular house was built between the 18th and the 19th century at a time when wineries had their place in the middle of the villages, and the cellar was the part of the house that changed the least.

In the semi-underground cellarThis first location, where he and his family also live is the main one : the press is here among stainless-steel vats on the street level, this is a Bücher press, he bought it 3 years ago second-hand and it makes a nice job. The grapes are unloaded whole-clustered in the press. When the juice gets out of the press, he puts it in a stainless-steel vat for the debourbage (settling of the must) between 36 and 48 hours, depends. This will sediment the thick part of the must so that the clear juice can be pumped into the casks or foudres in the cellar [picture above]. While he explains these steps, Marc Tempe opens the door to the cellar, a beautiful, dim-lit two-level cellar with many different sizes of foudres (wooden vats), from 3 hectoliters to 55 hectoliters. He bought them all in 1995 when oddly there were still vignerons who were getting rid of these beauties. The wooden foudres have this typical oval shape often encountered in Alsace. The wineries in Alsace usually capitalize on tradition and on these vieux foudres to rally tourists even though it's often all concrete around and the vinification far from traditional (depends what we call traditional...). Marc Tempé says that he makes very little interventions in the vineyard and same in the cellar. His vineyards are organicly farmed since 1993, and on Biodynamie since 1996. On the cellar side, the only mechanic intervention is the press stage, a slow press to get the best of the grapes without losing some acidity. The whole clusters will be pressed very slowly, the stem playing the role of a drain allowing the juice to flow easily, something the Champagne producers have understood long ago. Without the stems, the solid part of the grapes would seal off and prevent the juice to flow, forcing the vigneron to turn around and break this compact part (rebêchage) through rotations of the press, which may have negative consequences on the juice. Also, the slowness of this press stage for the ph and acidity : the more you rush the clusters and grapes, the higher the ph of the juice will be. For a white wine, the only natural thing that can make a wine last longer is the acidity or a low ph, that's why he takes care that the pressing is very slow. Showing the sculptured foudre lockThe lower-level part of this cellar is just three steps down from the first one. Same beautiful, ageless vats and foudres.
Back to the press stage and the acidity. Marc Tempé says that one of the striking results of the biodynamic vineyard-management is a surge in the juice'acidity which is credited to a stronger interaction between the roots and the natural minerals and nutrients of the soil. The careful pressing helps preserve as much as possible this increased acidity. He adjusts the press time for each grape load, depending of the harvest quality, the grape variety, the year (more or less botritys), but it goes from a minimum of 4-5 hours to 8-10 hours for late harvest and noble grapes. The more the grapes are concentrated, the less juice you will have, so it takes more time to get it out. Many vignerons rely on the fixed programs of the press' integrated computer : they consider that if things turn bad they have "ways" to "correct" their mishandling of the press stage. Marc Tempé says that he has no fixed rule and will conduct each press according to the changing parameters. He says that the interns fresh from the enology school often ask for a user book with programs and rules to follow with this press, to which he answers that if the press maker issued a manual, this is up to the vintner to adapt and do what he thinks will be best for the future wine. The casks in the lower levelOnce here in the cellar, the wine will live quietly its life : nothing will interfere with the wine. No yeasts, no bentonite, nothing is added, the juice will turn into wine by itself. The fermentation can last 2 months, 6 months or 2 years, the wine decides. There's for example an Auxerrois (Pinot Auxerrois) from 2005 which hasn't been touched except for topping up : the wine, which never saw additives or SO2, has not yet reached the end of its journey. The reason is that in 2005 there was lots of Botrytis, the harvest was very ripe and the wine didn't stop fermenting or stabilize since. Each winter, this wine makes a pause and goes to sleep, and each spring, here we go, back to work... it keeps making some gas and Marc Tempé shows us how a simple pressure [pic on left] on the front of the foudre make bubbles burst noisily through the air tap at the top because the fermentation keeps a pressure inside (this tap helps keep the CO2 in the vat, which in important for a SO2-free wine). What would make many winemakers impatient doesn't seem to worry him more than that. Asked about the age of these big wooden vats or foudres, he says that it is probably between 60 to 100 years. He bought them all to vignerons who were turning to stainless-steel vats in the mis 90s'. There's a narrow opening on the front and young trainees can slip inside to wash them when necessary (he uses plain water with a few drops of sulphur). He had a Japanese trainee for a while and she was very thin like often in Japan, which was very convenient for the job. He says that once you stand inside it's usually a bit frightening at the beginning but with the candle it's OK. When he was young, like 12-13 years, he was the one to do this job. He says that a funny thing is that there's almost no tartaric concretions on both the upper end and the bottom.The second cellarMarc Tempé jokes that he has a very modern way to limit the number of midges and flies that could be interested in a just-emptied vat : he lets the spiders' webs in place, he says that's what makes a good cellar. Speaking about the oval shape of the Alsatian wooden vat, he says that there are several reasons behind that : first the lack of room; a narrower and taller vat will fit more easily in a cramped cellar. The second reason is that the egg, oval shape of these vats creates a pressure phenomenon that translates in a clearer wine. In short, wines tend to clear naturally faster in this type of cask compared with a circular or square stainless-steel vat for example. We're still in the first cellar when he explains that he had the luck to get this house through his wife's family, he appreciates the authentic cellar with real stone-and-mortar walls, complete with their moulds, and a plain earth ground with cobble stones. That is not common nowadays, many vignerons having favored concrete and efficiency. And pointing to white streaks on the ground, he says that the natural microscopic fungus which grows on the ground in winter plays its part in the cellar's life. Formatted enologists don't view these occurences favorably when they visit his place but that's the real life of a cellar. He says that hygienism and the use of chlorine has polluted many cellars, bringing harmful types of mould that impaired the wine with bad aromas [not that I want to brag, but that's what I was saying in the last story about old goat-cheese]. His long elevage (minimum 2 years) is important for the future wine because there is an exchange between the lees and the wine. He doesn't want any batonnage (stirring of the lees) because if they practice it in Burgundy, this is because they have a bit more acidity and can afford the relative loss of acidity caused by the batonnage. Plus, in Burgundy, the harvested grapes are usually 100% healthy while here in Alsace there's most of the time some botrytis, which is not necessarily bad as residual sugar is welcome in Alsace. But whatever, he doesn't try to explain everything, he notes that the way he handles the juice (and the vineyard of course) translates into wines that he loves. In one of the first pictures above, Marc Tempé shows us a beautiful carved foudre-locker, a Foss Reil in Alsatian. That's the only one he owns, the vignerons never sell their Foss Reils with the foudres, they keep them as precious artifacts from generation to generation. This is a typical Alsatian tradition and the real, hand-made Foss Reil is carved on both sides, including the one on the wine side.
His wife's family had this house before WW2 and made wine there, selling the wine to cooperatives after the war like it often happened in Alsace. In the courtyard outside the 2nd cellarAs we walk to the second cellar (2nd pic above), Marc Tempé speaks about the industrialization of the viticulture that culminated in the 1980s', the chemicals in the vineyard and in the winery were seen as a relief for many of these hard-working vignerons and farmers. If now we know better, it was understandable in the 1950s' and 1960s'. He says that before starting his winery, he was on the other side of the fence and worked 11 years at the INAO, and he saw what was going on in the viticulture world. He had the chance through his INAO administration job to meet many winemakers and vignerons, the chemical as well as the organic ones. He took part to the setting-up of the Crémant d'Alsace (Alsace sparkling), so he studied what the Champagne producers did, and for that he reviewed all the parameters Champagne making. He understood that much of the quality of Champagne comes first from its terroir, but also from its pressurage technique. This all helped him later to choose his own pressing style. Asked if from his experience at the INAO, we could have someday strict rules forbidding moulds in the cellars like the hygienists imposed to the cheese makers, he says yes, including for the rest of the microbian life of the cellar and the wild yeasts. Like for the cheese it would translate into a lesser-quality wine. Like for the artisanal cheese makers, he says that in addition, these sanitary rules, if they come one day, would be a burden for the artisan producers.
He rents the second cellar to a neighboor. It is located maybe 50 meters from his house/winery and we access to it after walking through a courtyard which was in the ancient times the Cour Dïmière, that is the courtyard where the peasants had to pay their taxes (the Dîme) under the form of wheat and other commodities. this second cellar is more Burgundian than Alsatian, with regular, smaller casks compared to the foudres. Not fully underground, it is not airconditionned and its temperature changes with the seasons, but he says that the idea that the wines need a cold temperature year around is baseless. The wines can stand these changes and live with the changes. once finished and bottled, that's a different story of course. So, in this cellar, he tries do do something else with the few demi-muids in this cellar and with the smaller 228-liter casks, for example he shows one with a Riesling Grains Nobles 2007. The tannins of the wood will make an exchange with the wine and he wants to see the result. He gets his casks from the Domaine Leflaive (Anne-Claude Leflaive)in Burgundy. The reason is that he is sure that the wine that went through these casks was organic and devois of pesticides or other harmful chemicals. He also bought a few 350-liter casks from the Domaine Henri Boileau. Last year, he bottled some 2003 wines after a very long elevage and he says that these wines are impressive, they were in contact with the air, they got tannins and could last forever after that. About SO2, he puts some although very moderately, first at the press, and then before bottling.Zellenberg, view over the Vosges mountains (shot from near the fountain) The wines that we tasted :
__Marc Tempé, Pinot Blanc Zellenberg 2006. Entry wine at Marc Tempé (11,4 Euro, public price), after the Edelzwicker (Alliance) which costs 6 or 7 Euro. Bottled in september 2008. Residual sugar. Some botrytis, never any sugar adding (again, no additives whatsoever and the juice ferments with its own wild yeasts). With the natural sugar in the grapes, he hasn't a wine under 13°. The botrytis allows a natural concentration of the juice. The down side is that the botrytis, in the wine, feeds off the same things that the yeasts, the latter tending to stop their work. Rich wine.
__Marc Tempé, Riesling Zellenberg 2006. 13,6 Euro. Harvested very ripe, some grapes were close to late-harvest type. In 2006 there was too much rain during the harvest season. Very nice mouth.
__Marc Tempé, Riesling Burgreben 2002. 21,8 Euro. Nose : complexity. Here the terroir and the acidity make a beautiful result in this medium-aged wine.
__Marc Tempé, Rodelsberg 2005. Gewürztraminer with Pinot Gris. Lots of minerality. Second nose : very refined and intense at the same time. In the mouth, very beautiful acidity and minerality. A bit turbid (non filtered).
__Marc Tempé, Gewürztraminer Zellenberg 2006. Striking golden color. Marc Tempé says that this bottle was opened 3 days ago and left without cork.The acidity makes a good balance with the residual sugar. Very nice mouth. 15,6 Euro.
__Marc Tempé, Gewürztraminer Mambourg Grand Cru 2005. Unfiltered. Bottled in 2007. The sucrosity of the wine is an exquisite experience, such a concentration anf finesse. The climat here is steepy with limestone soil. We don't spit here and the empty glass releases even more aromas. 31,6 Euro (public price again).
..................Marc Tempé and his wife have two children, who attend the Waldorf school of Colmar. 85% of Marc Tempé wines are exported, Japan being a leading buyer (see here for the importers).
Marc Tempé's wines can be purchased in La Vierge de la Réunion in Paris.Marc Tempé16 rue du Schlossberg68340 Zellenbergphone +33 3 89 47 85 22fax +33 3 89 47 97 01marctempe (at) wanadoo (dot) frwww.marctempe.fr

Comments

[Steve L.]

Regarding the comments about eliminating ambient molds and yeasts in the cellar: what a scary thought. That would be the day many people stop buying any French wine. Maybe it's time the INAO was abolished.

[hikalu]

always, you visit nice wineries and nice photos!

[hikalu]

I remember the first his wine that I've tasted was also Alliance, nice flower painting on the label. Was it Edelzwicker? That was many nice smelling on my nose

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oV7840t-tew/SUZSRtLDVeI/AAAAAAAACQ8/62DfA3XiiLs/s1600-h/081214wine.JPG

[Jeff B]

Remarkable. Thank you, as always.

Regards,

Jeff