Domaine Marcel Deiss in Bergheim
The Domaine Marcel Deiss is located in Bergheim in the Alsace in France. The winery was founded in 1947; the Deiss family looks back on a long history in Alsatian winegrowing.
Complantation and Biodynamics
The estate cultivates vineyards according to the principle of complantation, in which several Alsatian grape varieties are grown together in one plot. According to the winery, the planted vineyards include 13 Alsatian grape varieties. This practice began in 1984 after taking over a vineyard planted after the First World War in Schoenenbourg; in 1990, a modern mixed vineyard in the Altenberg de Bergheim terroir followed.
Biodynamic farming is carried out without synthetic products. Documented measures include tilling the soil instead of herbicides, compost, natural agents for disease control, mass selections, cover cropping and agroforestry.
Winemaking
For wines from com-planted plots, the grapes are harvested and pressed together and vinified without additives. The winery uses natural yeasts and dispenses with synthetic yeasts, added bacteria, enzymes, aromatic additives, chaptalisation, as well as acidification and deacidification.
Terroir-driven Wines
The range includes terroir-driven white wines and red wines made from Pinot Noir. The Burlenberg is based on Pinot Noir and other Pinot varieties and grows on silicified crinoid limestone shaped by volcanic activity. The Pinot Noir red wine Gruenspiel Rouge comes from Bergheim and is described as powerful and tannin-forward. Saint-Hippolyte Rouge grows on barren, dry soils of weathered grey Thannenkirch granite and is described as mineral, lively and saline.
