2022 L'As de B

The Bursin family's ancestors had been farming and tending vines in Westhalten since the late 17th century. When Matthias Bohrer and Agate Brun married in 1890, they specialized in viticulture and sold wine. Once Bohrer died in 1939, Agate Brun continued tending the vines and working in the vineyards but sold her fruit to the local négociant simply because women did not make wine at the time. Her daughter Marguerite Bohrer and son-in-law Joseph Wisselmann switched to the local co-op when it was founded in 1956. These were Agate Bursin’s grandparents. Their vineyards were divided equally between their children, and Agate Bursin started her own domaine in 2000 with three hectares of vines. She loved working with her grandparents in the vines, especially during harvest. Her parents initially did not allow her to attend a viticultural college, but they agreed that she could study oenology and viticulture at the University of Dijon starting in 1994. Her professors encouraged her to continue her studies, and she specialized in wine law, graduating in 1999. She now farms seven hectares in and around Westhalten. She started working organically in 2012 and began conversion to organic certification in 2017. She is adamant that she never acidifies or chaptalizes. When I comment on the “coolness” of her Rieslings, she says she works “enormously” to ensure her leaves shade the Riesling fruit. The 2022 Pinot Noirs were made with 10% whole bunches and had a short eight-day cuvaison with an initial daily pigeage before fishing fermenting in used pièce. They then aged for 20 months.