ORBIS city intelligence

Buying in Eguisheim: Eleven Cellars in One Village

Every shop in this village sells wine. That makes choosing harder rather than easier, because the grand cru names repeat across producers and the appellation will not tell you who to visit. Pick by farming method and by how the cellar receives visitors.

Domaine Emile Beyer: biodynamic, and fourteen generations deep S1

Fourteen generations and biodynamic farming is an unusual pairing. It is the reason to start here. Ask what the practice actually changes in the glass rather than accepting biodynamic as a label.

Ask which grand cru parcels are pouring on the day you visit. Tastings here are often limited to what has already been broached, so call first and avoid a wasted drive.

Domaine Schoepfer: fifteen generations of the same family S2

The family has worked these vines since 1656, across fifteen generations. Ask which heritage Alsace varietals they still work, because that is what fifteen generations of continuity actually buys you.

Older domaines are not automatically more conservative in style. Taste before assuming, and ask how the winemaking has changed in the last decade.

Domaine Paul Ginglinger: certified organic, and not the other Ginglinger S3

Two separate Ginglinger domaines trade in this village and both of them farm organically. Name the one you mean when you book, because arriving at the wrong cellar is a common mistake here.

This house works grands crus alongside crémant. Say early on that sparkling is what you came for, or the still wines will fill the whole tasting.

Wolfberger: the cooperative, and a different kind of visit S4

Wolfberger is a cooperative cellar founded in 1902 rather than a family domaine, which makes it a different institution rather than a lesser one. Expect the scale to show in the range of crémant and fruit eaux-de-vie on offer.

Come here to compare widely in one stop, or on a day when the family cellars are shut. Expect a tasting room organised for volume rather than a conversation held across a barrel.

Domaine Joseph Freudenreich & Fils: book the vineyard walk, not just the tasting S5

This cellar pairs a tasting with a walk in the vines. Ask what the walk covers and how long it takes before committing an afternoon.

A vineyard walk explains why the crus differ in a way that a tasting bench never manages. Book this one early in the day if you are visiting several domaines afterwards.

Domaine Antoine Stoffel farms Grand Cru Eichberg organically, and Domaine Pierre-Henri Ginglinger and Meyer Jean-Luc & Bruno are the other organic houses here. Domaine Bruno Sorg works terroir Riesling. Maison Leon Baur sits on the ramparts. Book Les Vins d'Alsace Bruno Hertz if a vineyard tour by 2CV appeals, and avoid it if that sounds like the wrong kind of afternoon.