Gérard Schueller Pinot Gris

If a French wine has been approved by INAO, Institut National des Appellations d'Origine, who classify AOC and AOVDQS wines, this is a sure sign of quality. However, winemakers who break with conventions and have the courage to experiment are often not accepted by this public institution who control production. One of these people is Bruno Schueller, an independent winegrower who inherited his father, Gérard Schueller’s estate in Husseren-les-Châteux (a small village south of Colmar, Alsace), and started a new chapter without worrying that his wines don’t always gain INAO approval. The fact is that his wines, although marvellous, rarely match up with what is commonly known as “Alsace wine”.

This autonomy and creativity is expressed in wines like Gérard Schueller Pinot Gris. A white wine made with Pinot Gris grapes from old vines planted on sandy and clay-limestone soils where organic and biodynamic viticulture is practiced. Bruno is a genius who clearly interprets what the grapes need at any given moment and steers them in the right direction with minimal intervention. This is something that the winery continues to strive for and, as a result, the style and flavour are different in each vintage. The grapes for this wine are directly pressed whole and then fermented with native yeasts. It then spends about 9 months on the lees in wooden barrels. Finally, the wine is bottled without filtering or adding sulphites.

Independent, intrepid and mischievous with wines like Gérard Schueller Pinot Gris, Bruno Schueller has become a leading producer of natural wines from France’s Alsace region. Blindly trusting in what Mother Nature does on her own, he produces around 40 different cuvées each year. However, each one of them is completely different from the previous year.