Riesling Grand Cru Ollwiller

Balthazar Albrecht arrived in Orschwihr from Thann in 1698. By 1827, the family was cultivating vineyard plots in the village, and its holdings grew during the nineteenth century. Lucien, whose name the house bears, was born in 1930. Eight generations have worked these soils.

The family story belongs to this village and the vineyards around it. Orschwihr remains the place to begin exploring the house, with the Bollenberg and Pfingstberg hillsides nearby. The name on the bottle honours Lucien; the history behind it reaches further back, to Balthazar and the generations that followed him.

The Bollenberg stands apart from the Vosges, open to the sun throughout the day. Nearby, the Pfingstberg faces south-east, with slopes steep enough to need terraces in places. Together, these hillsides help you picture the vineyard country around Orschwihr, where Lucien Albrecht's story began.

Ollwiller brings another place into the house's range. This Grand Cru lies in Wuenheim, below Vieil-Armand, around the château that gives the vineyard its name. Here, Lucien Albrecht makes Riesling: a chance to explore a particular Alsace hillside through a single grape. The name tells you where to look as well as what to pour.

Lucien Albrecht began experimenting with sparkling wine in 1971, five years before Crémant d'Alsace gained its own recognised name. The house worked alongside other producers towards that recognition, helping establish a style that remains part of its range.

The same house takes a patient approach to its Riesling Grand Cru Ollwiller. The grapes are picked entirely by hand and pressed slowly and gently. Fermentation takes four to six weeks in temperature-controlled stainless steel, followed by two to three months resting on fine yeast sediment. From harvest to the end of that rest, the wine has time at each stage.

Relaunched in 2012, the house signs its labels 'Grands Vins d'Alsace'. The range reaches from still wines to Crémants, with Grands Crus offering a closer look at individual sites. At the Caveau Wolfberger in Orschwihr, you can taste Lucien Albrecht's wines in the village at the heart of its history.

Riesling Grand Cru Ollwiller is one way to begin. Its two names make a simple promise: Riesling is the grape, Ollwiller is the vineyard. Choose it when you want to spend a little more time with a place, following the wine from its hillside origin to your glass.