Jean Marc Dreyer – A visit
We first met Jean Marc Dreyer from the village of Rosheim in Alsace a number of years ago at a winter salon in the tiny village of Glaine-Montaigut in the hills to the east of the Auvergne city of Clermont-Ferrand.
It is a small salon, but we always meet interesting vignerons there and Jean Marc Dreyer was no exception. We were incredibly impressed with the purity of his wines and his work with maceration that lifted the wines to another level.
Based on this tasting we asked him if he was interested in working with us and he agreed, but he didn’t have much wine to sell us at the time and also we think he wanted us to come to see him first, which is not uncommon amongst the winemakers we work with.
We have visited him in his village of Rosheim on a number of occasions and tasted the wines as well as discussing his very natural techniques that he uses in both the vineyards and in the winery.
Jean Marc has literally dozens of vineyards surrounding his village. Some of his vineyards contain long forgotten varieties that he is patiently looking after such as Abondant which is one of the last plots left in France.
All of his vineyards are typified by incredibly healthy soil which shows through in the quality of the grapes and then the quality of the wine.
The grape varieties that flourish in these soils include Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Auxerrois, Sylvaner, Muscat and Pinot Noir.
The photo above was taken in a parcel of Auxerrois, which is part of a so far three year old experiment where every third row has not been pruned. That will continue into the future with Jean Marc saying he thinks it will take the vines at least 7 years to fully understand their new life! You can see also his practice of planting trees amongst the vines.
In his winery, Jean-Marc has some wonderful old large wooden foudres where he ferments and matures most of his wines. Some of these are quite large holding thousands of litres of wine.
So, we look forward very much to the arrival of Jean Marc’s wines later this year as they are certainly very special.
If you have been lucky enough to try these wines in France and want to be notified of their arrival, please send us an email.
Please note: This article was written when we first started visiting Jean-Marc. Since then we have had a number of shipments which sell very quickly, so if you are interested in trying these amazing wines, please let us know so we can add you to the allocations list.
You can find out which wines of Jean Marc Dreyer are currently available here.
