Véronique et Thomas Muré

France

“It all begins with the soil, the vine, the grape. The smell of the vineyard – like inhaling birth”

Steven Spurrier

A sleep in and a lack of motivation for a morning walk. Instead, vitality building calisthenics to prepare us for the day ahead.

Today we taste the wine from one of the most important grand cru vineyards in Alsace – Clos Saint Landelin.

Rarely does a single family maintain and care for the same grand cru vineyard across 12 generations.

I make some porridge, and we head off.

It is another marathon of tasting, but not as extreme as yesterday.

Oddly enough, it is the non grand cru vineyards that shine today. Not to say the Clos Saint Landelin is not producing outstanding Riesling and Gewurztraminer, but the wines from the Steinstuck vineyard are particularly strong.

The highlight of the day is the 2011 Clos Saint Landelin Riesling, but it carried a price tag to match its pedigree, so we didn’t take a bottle.

For the second day, the concerning theme of climate change dominates the conversation. Alsace has grown the best examples of Riesling anywhere in the world for over 500 years, and in the past decade, winemakers have not been able to successfully plant out new vines to this most famous variety, they simply cannot survive the heat in the grand cru dry grown AOC.

Even the ancient vines are suffering in the warming climate. Domaine Muré made their most iconic Riesling, Zinnkoepflé, in such small quantities last year that it sold out in months. This year is hotter and drier.

A decade ago, Véronique and Thomas’ father planted Syrah in the Clos Saint Landelin vineyard. Famous in the sweltering northern part of Côtes du Rhône, it was inconceivable to plant Syrah in Alsace a generation ago.

Wines tasted today –

NV Domaine Muré Crémant d’Alsace ‘Alsace Prestige – Alsace, France

2019 Domaine Muré Crémant d’Alsace Grand Millésime – Alsace, France

2024 Domaine Muré Steinstück Riesling – Alsace, France

2024 Domaine Muré Côte de Rouffach Nature Riesling – Alsace, France

2011 Domaine Muré Clos Saint Landelin Vorbourg Grand Cru Riesling – Alsace, France

2024 Domaine Muré Steinstück Sylvaner – Alsace, France

2023 Domaine Muré Nuit Rosé Shiraz – Alsace, France

2023 Domaine Muré Clos Saint Landelin Vorbourg Grand Cru Gewürztraminer – Alsace, France

2023 Domaine Muré Zinnkoepflé Grand Cru Gewürztraminer – Alsace, France

2023 Domaine Muré “Cuvée Oscar” Clos Saint Landelin Vorbourg Grand Cru Sylvaner – Alsace, France

2023 Domaine Muré Clos Saint Landelin Vorbourg Pinot Noir – Alsace, France

A wonderful coincidence: the Sylvaner story that played out yesterday at Domaine Dirler-Cadé echoes one we hear today — the grape survives in a Grand Cru vineyard only because a grandfather loved it too much to tear it out. Sylvaner’s tale is a sad one. When the four noble grapes were chosen — Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, and Muscat — poor Sylvaner was left off the list. Chasing the prestige of the Grand Cru label, growers ripped out Sylvaner en masse and replanted it with its more fashionable cousins.

You can see Clos Saint Landelin, Cǒte de Rouffach and Steinstuck through the window of the winery. They are only a few hundred meters apart. It is hard to get your head around this landscape being under the ocean. 350 million years ago we had the bedrock of the Vosges — granite, gneiss, schist. 150 million years later it was under the ocean, and the limestone of Clos Saint Landelin is deposited. A recent 50 million years ago, Cǒte de Rouffach was formed when everything got upended with the volcanoes.

I mean that all sounds wonderful, but I guess the world is only a few thousand years old and, what does it say… on Thursday morning at tea break, God created Earth, including Alsace.

In the picture below, God with his son, Jesus, who is also God; his son is himself, whom he later sends to Alsace to die for our sins, which is likely natural wines, is creating Alsace and its complex soil structures. Thank you, God and Jesus, for creating such wonderful geology that would have taken nature millions of years in just a few thousand. Amen. Thoughts and prayers and so on.

Only two bottles for us today –

2024 Domaine Muré Steinstück Sylvaner

An excellent easy drinking wine. Slight tropical fruits and a relatively low alcohol.

2024 Domaine Muré Steinstück Riesling

The pick of the Rieslings after the 2011 Grand Cru and a credit to a villages designated vineyard.

We are home for lunch, and I take a stroll into the village to get some food for lunch and dinner while Shell takes a much deserved nap.

Boucherie Les Dominicains is closing as I arrive, but they are kind enough to sell me some roasted pork for lunch sandwiches and a spatchcock to roast for dinner

A block further is a bakery, Pâtisserie Thierry Gross, where I grab some sweet things for dessert and a sourdough loaf.

In between is a fromagerie, Qui l’eût cru, and I pick up some comté and tomatoes.

I walk back with these good things; I ponder if we were wealthy and owned an apartment in Geubwiller and didn’t have to work, and had EU citizenship and disregarded my health… I could drink wine and shop for food like this every day.

Roast chicken and potatoes for dinner tonight. I prepare the vegetables and struggle with the mathematics of how long I should cook the spatchcock. It’s a heavy bird, clearly bred for its meat, with massive thighs. You just don’t get this type of fowl in South Korea.

I want to do this masculine poulet justice.

We open the 2024 Domaine Muré Steinstück Sylvaner as I prepare the vegetables. The wine simplifies the decision; trust in Bacchus. When the Sylvaner is done, check the bird; if the fowl appears cooked, open another bottle to drink while you eat it. If not done, check between each glass of the second bottle. Open enough bottles until gallus gallus domesticus is done.

And by some miracle of Bacchus, just as I open a bottle of 2021 Domaine Dirler Cadé Riesling Grand Cru Searing, the great bird launches from the oven in all its glory. The vegetables are slightly overdone, but the fowl is magnificent.

One of my few talents is the ability to consume an entire chicken, with no help, in one sitting. It is with no shame that this prepubescent rooster feeds both of us, with just enough left over to grace our luncheon tomorrow.

“When chickens get to live like chickens, they’ll taste like chickens, too.”

Michael Pollan

We drink wine on the terrace as the summer heat fades. Grand Cru wine from a vineyard a few hundred meters away. Place. Time. The person you adore… and all that.

Nothing planned for tomorrow.