 In the mid-1990's, the practice of biodynamic viticulture stole the hearts and minds of many of the top winemakers in France. The practice involves a combination of strict organic farming, with special organic treatments conducted around cycles of the moon. François and Geneviève own and manage thirty acres around the southern Alsace towns of Wettolsheim, Turckheim, and Wintzenheim. They grow tiny quantities of bio-dynamically farmed grapes in the "Rosenberg" and "Herrenweg" sites, and in the Grands Crus "Steingrubler" and "Hengst." The farming may seem excessively labor intensive-bordering on obsessive-but it's hard to argue with the results at Barmès-Buecher: very low yields of early-ripened, healthy fruit, and the most concentrated wines in Alsace. The old vines in François' vineyards look like specimen plants. They exhale vitality, and you feel good walking among them. Even his soil looks and smells wholesome compared to his neighbors', where pesticides and herbicides pollute the ground, and where the sterile earth is compacted by the frequent passage of the tractor. The wines of Domaine Barmès-Buecher all exhibit fine "cut" and pristine fruit. |
