france: alsace
Domaine Marc Tempé, Haut Rhin (biodynamic)
In 1999 the patriarch of Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Léonard Humbrecht, called Marc Tempé his "spiritual godson" in La Revue du Vin. This was akin to being touched by lightning, for in Alsace there is God, there is Napoléon, and there is Léonard Humbrecht.
Marc is a committed biodynamic grower with 18.5 acres. He started his journey as a lab technician for the body that governs France's appellation system (the INAO), then stepped outdoors to become a vineyard expert for the same office. His responsibilities included selecting lieux-dits, or single-vineyards, for inclusion into Alsace's new grand cru ranking. Then, with his wife Anne-Marie, he started his own domaine and made his first commercial wine in 1995. He harvests by hand and employs extended fermentations (far longer than the norm) in old wooden foudres, and works with the lees and CO2. He bottles with minimal or no filtration and minimal SO2. He never chaptalizes to boost alcohol or jump-start a fermentation. Scorning residual sugar as a mask to hide faults, he accepts it in his table wines only if the native yeast shut down and the wine is left with sugar naturally. He's one of those rare guys who is supremely confident but not the least bit arrogant. His wines are filled with personality.
In The New France, Andrew Jefford writes: "...Marc Tempé is going from strength to strength at his small 7.5-ha biodynamic domaine based in Zellenberg with parcels in Mambourg, Schoenenbourg, and other local sites. 'La vendange, c'est mon dada,' he told me ('the harvest is my hobby-horse'): absolute ripeness, which combined with low yields and very gentle pressing gives rich, concentrated, highly aromatic musts. No chaptalization, no acid adjustments, no selected yeasts, and fermentation in wood (90% of the 1999 harvest was still fermenting when I called in June 2000): this natural approach gives wines of splendid focus and definition..."
Marc's green bottles are for the village wines and are "wines of fruit." His brown bottles are for the older lieux-dits and are "wines of soil." The tall brown bottles are for the grand crus. At all levels, these are among the most distinctive wines of Alsace.
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