While Burgundy and the Rhone were the focus of a two-week trip through France last November, a long-weekend spent in Alsace brought Domaine Schoffit onto my radar for the first time.Located in the middle of Colmar, this producer is currently under the guidance of third generation winemaker Alexandre Schoffit.
“The wines are compelling in a rather quiet way, understated but so convincing.” — Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous Media, April 2024
The domaine was started by Alexandre’s grandfather Robert, while Alexandre’s father Bernard made it what it is today, particularly through some astute vineyard purchases and some backbreaking work…
Bernard had embarked on an ambitious program of buying vineyard land in the central part of Rangen (Alsace’s southernmost Grand Cru) including the Clos St Théobold which faces due south. Through sheer determination and ambition, he reclaimed all 6.5 hectares, a good part of which had been abandoned because it was deemed too steep to work. In fact, Rangen Grand Cru is probably the steepest vineyard site I have ever personally laid eyes on (including sites visited during a visit to Galicia in north-west Spain) – the photos included don’t quite do the steepness justice.“The very steep and volcanic grand cru of Rangen is one of the very greatest of Alsace Grand Crus, famous for intense and flinty Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewurztraminer. It overlooks the town of Thann and its church, La Collégiale Saint-Thiébaut, which gives its name to Schoffit’s Clos Saint Théobald plot within the Rangen Grand Cru.” – Australian importer.
Our tasting with Alexandre in the cellars of his family winery was epic, and went for hours. We looked at multiple vintages of all dry wines made across vintages 2022 and 2023. The value at the entry level is remarkable, with the quality of wine on offer not to be understated. These wines balance freshness with fruit weight, and provide pleasant, subtle textures.
However it is undoubtedly in the Grand Cru Rieslings where the real excitement lies. Sommerberg Grand Cru exists in the heart of Alsace, just west of Colmar, and has a high content of granite in the soil. This certainly contributes to the strong mineral undertones in the wine.
Yet it is the Grand Cru of Rangen that is the jewel in the crown for Schoffit. Only three producers have holdings here. Alexandre quipped “many others would like to own a piece of Rangen, but not many would like to work it.” Indeed the site is challenging – but from the most extreme sites you can achieve the most extreme wines. Such is the case here, and the Rangen 2022 Riesling we drank that day (and I have had two bottles since returning to Australia) are lasting memories due to the rocky extract and mineral pull that this site transmits into the bottle.
“Rangen has, in the past, been called ‘the Montrachet of Alsace’. The varieties and flavours are different, of course, but in other respects the analogy is exact: these great, complete wines are in many ways the apogee of their region, and should be represented in every fine-wine collection. Every time I taste great wines from the Rangen de Thann, Alsace’s most southerly Grand Cru, they strike me a culmination of everything that wine lovers revere about terroir, and why they accord it so much importance. They are, in other words, not only very fine wines, but their scents and flavours are marked by an otherness for which ‘mineral’ seems the inescapable term. No other single vineyard in Alsace comes close to Rangen for sheer force of personality, and if I was asked to nominate any vineyard anywhere in the world as producing “the ultimate terroir wine”, Rangen de Thann would be it.” – Andrew Jefford, Decanter Magazine, October 2016.
Needless to say, all wines offered here come highly recommended. For me, Schoffit Rangen Riesling is now a wine I plan to follow each year, and I look forward to seeing it with some real age down the track.
To taste, learn and discuss further about the wines and please join us for our upcoming Schoffit masterclass on February 13.
Links to purchase the wine below.
Schoffit Pinot Blanc (Auxerrois) 2022
Schoffit ‘Harth’ Tradition Riesling 2021
Schoffit Grand Cru ‘Sommerberg’ Riesling 2022
Schoffit Grand Cru ‘Rangen’ Clos Saint Theobald Riesling 2022
Ches Cook, FWC.