The Winery

Cave Vinicole de Hunawihr is a co-op based in the heart of the Grands Crus area of the Alsace region of
France.
Its policy is to extend the selective vinification process, which has been developed for many years in
order to offer a wide choice of wines. The range includes generic wines, wines which have been awarded
gold medals in major wines competition, Lieux-dits, Grands Crus, sparkling wines, Late Harvest and Noble
Selected Grapes.

Our philosophy

As a human size company, our philosophy is to vinify our production in compliance with the rich diversity
of Alsatian soils. Elaborated to 100% with our grapes, we offer to our customers a whole range of great quality wines recognized by the Press all over the world.
With 25% of sales abroad, we adapt our sales strategy to the different market in order to implement strong
partnership with each customer. We guarantee a regular follow-up and support of the sales by reactivity, availability and flexibility of our team.
Such an involvement ensures as well the wine making of “specialities” (Grands Crus, Lieux-dits) as the
possibility of answering important operations requiring of volumes (private labels, special back label, screw-cap).

Our history

In 1954, Alsace was slowly recovering from a devastating World War II, and German occupation. That’s
when a few wine makers of Hunawihr realized that they could all improve the quality of their production by
working as a team. Blessed with amazing terroirs, the founding members spent their days working in the vines… and their nights constructing by hand the building, yet completely renovated, but still in use to this day.
50 years later, Cave Vinicole de Hunawihr ranks among the best : “La Revue du Vin de France” classified our cellar the 1st cooperative wine house in Alsace and the 3rd in France.

Soil and Sunhshine

Sheltered from oceanic influence by the Vosges Mountains, the Alsace wine region enjoys practically the
lowest rainfall in France (only 400-500mm per year) and is blessed with a semi-continental climate, sunny, hotand dry.
These optimal weather conditions, along with a nice and cool fall season, allow the grapes to ripen slowly
and to develop an amazing complexity of aromas.
Due to the erosion of the Vosges Mountain and the Black forest which, centuries ago formed an unique
mountain range; the geology of Alsace is a real mosaic of soils, made up of granite, limestone, gneiss, schist,
sandstone…
The vines of Hunawihr have been considered among the most noble of France since 1123 when Pope Calixte II took the defence of the small village on which taxes were levied twice.

Facts and figures

• Cave Cooperative dating back to 1954 ; today 110 members
• 200ha vineyards located in Hunawihr (80 %) and surroundings (Riquewihr, Zellenberg) among them 12ha
for Cremant d’Alsace (Pinot), 13ha for Grands Crus (Rosacker, Froehn, Sporen, Schoenenbourg, Osterberg)
• Average annual production : 15.000 Hl
• Average annual sales : over 1,6 M bottles (165.000 cases) with 25% sold abroad
• Soils : vineyards located on the so-called « geological fault of Ribeauvillé », the soil is clayey limestone marl with chalky gravels originating from the Muschelkalk and the Lettenkohle, giving a superb individuality to
the wines.
• Storage capacity : 40.000 Hl in bulk - 1.500.000 bottles in cellars with air conditioning
• Bottling line : 6.000 bottles/hour
• Modern equipment enables our Cellar to take full advantage of all the characteristics from the Hunawihr production.
• Destinations abroad : Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Canada, USA, Greece, Switzerland, Denmark, United
Kingdom, Italy, Finland, Norway, The Netherlands, French West Indies.

Vinification

Picking is mainly done by hand : 100% for Grands Crus and Lieux-dits, more than 60% for the rest of the range. The grapes are taken from the vineyards to the press house in specially harvest trailers in order to conserve the entire grapes.
The winery receives only a grape variety and an origin (Reserve, Lieux-dits, Grands Crus) per day, depending on the terroir and the micro-climate. Then, our winemaker makes a 2nd selection considering the sanitary state.
Neither destemmed nor crushed, entire grapes are pumped into the press.

Transformation in the cellar

After the grapes have been pressed, the juice is stored in stainless steel tank with temperature controlled. It is then racked by floatation, to separate the clear juice from the heavier impurities (sediment), before the start of fermentation.
Fermentation is mainly provoked by adding selected cultured yeasts, their action being slowed by carefully reducing the temperature in the tank in order to obtain a finer wine.
As soon as the fermentation is over, the wine is racked (pumped) to remove it from the sediment. Then, it is aged on fine lees during 4 to 6 months at least. It is tasted regularly by our winemaker to monitor its development and to decide about the frequency of stirring of the lees. When the moment is right, the wine is filtered with tangential filtration and keeps in tank. The wine will be bottled, labelled and packed just before sales, about 18 to 24 months after the harvest (except for rosé, Muscat and Crémants). Considering soils and micro-climate, terroirs from Hunawihr are ones of the latest in Alsace. So, wines need some time to develop its aromas and we favour ageing more in tank than in bottle.