Cave de Ribeauvillé

The tradition of the Cave de Ribeauvillé

The Cave de Ribeauvillé is part of a long French tradition. The lords of Ribeaupierre, as well as the Benedictine monks have long worked the land to form the vineyard of Ribeauvillé. The Clos du Zahnacker, very famous, owes its creation to the monk-knight, Martin Zahn, who settled there on his return from the crusades.

Created in 1895, the Cave de Ribeauvillé is the oldest wine cooperative in France. That year, the region was separated from France and the winegrowers of the region decided to restructure the vineyards and their way of working. They applied the precepts of a German theorist with avant-garde ideas: Frederic Raiffeisen. "Rappoltsweiler Winzerverein" was thus the first name of the Cave de Ribeauvillé, the first wine cellar in France.

Each winegrower sold all of his grapes to the cooperative and the team in place took care of the vinification and packaging. A commercial team was then responsible for the distribution of the wines.

This spirit of solidarity has survived the years and the Cave de Ribeauvillé is today renowned for its ethics, as much as for the quality of its wines.

The visit to the Cave de Ribeauvillé

The Cellar of Ribeauvillé is a prestigious place which can be visited and which gives the opportunity of tasty tastings. A team is in charge of welcoming families and groups. It is also possible to visit the vineyard.

The vineyard of the Cave de Ribeauvillé

The vineyards operated by the winegrowers attached to the Cave de Ribeauvillé cover 235 hectares, including 8 Grands Crus. The charter to be respected involves reasoned viticulture or organic farming, as well as manual harvesting.

The Cave de Ribeauvillé has equipped itself with state-of-the-art equipment in order to get the best out of the whole bunches of grapes that are delivered to it. The extraction in the vats is done by gravity and the elaboration of the wine respects the purity of the grape variety, as well as the identity of each terroir.

The objective of the vinification is to obtain frank, fresh and fruity wines. They always express the richness of the great Alsatian terroirs.

The wines of the Cave de Ribeauvillé

The Gewurztraminer

Gewurztraminer is a grape native to northern Italy, in the Alto Adige region, where its parent variety, Traminer, has been cultivated since the Middle Ages. Gewurztraminer means spicy Traminer. It is the most aromatic grape variety in Alsace, with its small, hard-skinned clusters. This early grape offers a palette of tastes that mixes flowers, exotic fruits and spices. Its wine is rich and complex.

The Sylvaner of Alsace

Sylvaner d'Alsace is a white wine produced in the Alsatian vineyards. This late grape variety produces a light wine with discreet fruitiness, but with great refreshing power. It is vivacious and magnifies all your seafood dishes, fish and shellfish.