The yield at Domaine Stentz-Buecher is voluntarily kept well below the maximum authorised levels, something that the adoptive vine owners at the winery learnt more about last Saturday by getting stuck into some serious de-budding.
The Gourmet Odyssey Discovery Experience days teach you about all the work carried out in the vineyard from pruning right up until the grapes are ripe enough to be harvested. Following the introductions from the winemakers, Céline and Stéphane, we headed off to the "Rosenberg" vineyard, where we paid a visit to our adopted vines.
Jean-Jacques, Céline and Stéphane's Dad, explained in detail all of the various stages in working the vines.
He particularly showed us how to de-bud the vines, which involves removing the double buds and excess shoots that grow on the trunks of the vines. If left, these take away some of the plants energy which can be better used to produce nice ripe grapes.
With extra care as it is the plot of vines which will be used to make our wine, we got stuck into the de-budding!
We then walked through the vineyard a little to admire the fantastic views of the Alsace landscape and we could even see as far as the Alps. Back at the winery, we tasted some of the wineries wines over lunch.
In the afternoon, Stéphane explained his philosophy of making wines, and took us on a tour of the fermentation halls to introduce us to the principal stages of vinification.
A full day, and very instructive thanks to the many questions and
enthusiasm of our participants, and not forgetting our passionate
winemakers of course!
Comments
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A very pleasant day and very enrichening.
Very good wines to taste from this winery.
We're looking forward to coming back next year.
Envoyé le Vendredi 30 May 2014 by Arnaud and Corinne