Domaine Valentin Zusslin

The Zusslin family has been local to Orschwihr since 1691, and siblings Marie and Jean-Paul Zusslin are the 13th generation to run the estate. Their grandfather, Valentin Zusslin, gave the name to the domaine. Their father, Jean-Marie Zusslin, who took over in 1975, made the switch from mixed agriculture to pure viticulture. He was among the first famous cohort of Alsace vignerons to convert to biodynamic methods in 1996, together with Barmès-Buecher and Zind-Humbrecht. Marie Zusslin remembers how excited and enthusiastic her father was about this new way of farming. “Since then, we have always progressed,” she says. Her brother Jean-Paul Zusslin trained with Kreydenweiss, Zind-Humbrecht and Barmès-Buecher and several domaines in Burgundy. Marie Zusslin studied law and business in Strasbourg and then attended viticultural school. They took over together in 2000. Today, they farm 21 hectares in and around Orschwihr, mainly on the Bollenberg, in Pfingstberg Grand Cru and their monopole Clos Liebenberg, on the south-facing plateau and the uppermost terrace above the Pfingstberg but not within its delimitations. Liebenberg consists of five contiguous hectares bordered by forest and hedgerows. Due to the forest, the site does not suffer from water stress and gets sunshine all day and cold winds at night. Plantings are 50% Riesling, 22% Pinot Noir and 10% each of Gewurztraminer and Auxerrois, with Sylvaner, Muscat, Chasselas and Chardonnay taking up the rest. The domaine is known for Pinot Noir, which is also thanks to Jean-Marie Zusslin, who passed away in 2016. “He realized that we have all the elements we need to produce great Pinot Noir: the Bollenberg, the limestone, the iron and the love. Making red wine and in Alsace, at a time when it was mostly still all white wine, was different. You need to invest in barrels, in sorting tables, etc. My father made all these investments. When we arrived in 2000, most of this was done. He was the creator,” says Marie Zusslin about the estate’s history with Pinot Noir. When he first planted Pinot Noir, it took up 5% of the estate. Today, almost a quarter of the plantings are done. Until the 2015 vintage, the top wine from Bollenberg was called Harmonie, a blend of two distinct parcels: Neuberg, planted in 1966 on pure limestone on the eastern side of the Bollenberg, and Luft, planted in 1975 on the western side of the Bollenberg, on deep marl on top of limestone. They were always vinified separately but only bottled separately as of 2016. The 2017 vintage is the current release of these two top wines. The Pinot Noirs are bold and powerful, as marked by ripeness as they are by acidity, and need years to show their true colors. The Zusslins re-release mature vintages to show aging potential. For this reason, I tasted an incredible vertical of Pinot Noir Bollenberg Harmonie from 2010 to 2014 and the separate Luft and Neuburg bottlings from 2017 and 2019 – what an experience. This was followed by Rieslings from 2018-2020. Of these wines, only the 2010 is no longer available.