5 questions for Mr. Erwin Moser from Vins D´Alsace Charles Wantz

Vins D´Alsace Charles Wantz is internationally respected family winery based in the Haut - Rhin area of the Alsace region (Barr). It produces wide range of typical Alsace varieties including Grand Cru category and all of those wines offers extremely fair proportion of finest quality and very reasonable price.

1) Do you remember your first encounter with the drink of Gods ? When was it and what linked your fate with wine?

I recall it as if it were yesterday! I had the pleasure of discovering wine and of being initiated to its delights by a wine - grower’s daughter – we weren’t even 20 years old then – and I fell to the spell of the daughter’s charm and her love potion: Alsace wine. This did not immediately bear on my winery fate, but on my fate as a young man, because I wedded her a few years later. It was many years later after our marriage that family circumstances pushed me into joining my wife’s family winery which we have been managing, my wife and I, for the past twenty years.

2) What is it that fascinates and attracts you most in wine?

Assuredly, it is its capacity to surprise, to astonish you, because there’s always something to be discovered each time you sample a new wine. This could be another winemaker’s wine coming from anywhere in the world, or more simply a new vintage of our own production. In fact, Alsace wines are somewhat like our children: even though they have the same parents, they differ always and each one has something to teach us, something new to reveal... An amateur of good wine is forcibly a humanist, he’s open, curious, tolerant, he casts a rather benevolent eye onto the world and wishes but one thing: to share with others this interior peace and profound joy that sampling and sharing a good wine will bring. Let’s not forget that many small and even larger conflicts have been settled around a table with a glass of wine in hand. In those countries where wine is not consumed or where its consumption is receding, intolerance and integrism are progressing. I believe in the mythical virtues of this beverage that has greatly influenced our life style and accompanied our culture for thousands of years.

3) What makes you worry most in today’s world of wine?

On one hand, it’s this competition, for it is indeed a battle that we are fighting worldwide, opposing two conceptions of wine: The first concept is that of producers and vintners who make wine with passion and are proud of their production, those who should really be called “winemakers”. The second concept is that of those people who have an industrial approach, using the media - laden image of this beverage to make money and profit, those who should be called “money makers”. I’m afraid to witness who’ll win this race… On the other hand, in France, our country, it’s above all the image and the social positioning of wine that are causing us concern these days; for reasons that are quite difficult to understand, our political leaders are acting in such a way as to eliminate wine from our daily environment and to eradicate the consumption of this natural product that the entire world envies us and copies, to such extent that a good number of our competitors end up pitying the fate of French wine makers. Others, however, who are more aggressive, cheer to this opportunity and this gift they receive from France. Coming back to global competition, the French wine makers are finding themselves today in the situation of a marathon runner competing against other runners from all over the world, only that, rather surprisingly, a certain “coach” starts by striking him so hard to break his legs, and at the same time demanding the best results, and pointing his finger on those who lag behind a foreign competitor. Such a hypocrisy!

4) What unique unmistakable features of your wines are you proud of?

Very modestly, I’ll answer that :-) all our wines are unique and incomparable - we try to produce genuine wines elaborated to meet stringent requisites while paying respect to the characteristics of this true gift of nature. This involves respect of the region of origin’s typical aspects, the soil and vines that gave birth to them. Evidently, the results are genuine, sincere, honest, fine and elegant wines that stand out with pride, yet without ostentation and arrogance. We are also proud of growing a very rare vine, called Klevener de Heiligenstein, that grows on a tiny area near our village (about 30 hectares or 80 acres). This is a very peculiar vine among the family of our Alsace vines. It was introduced to Alsace by one of our ancestors, Ehrart Wantz in the 18th century and it is probably originating from the Jura vineyards. This vine produces a white wine of great interest, a jolly partner to high gastronomy.

5) You may take with you two bottles of wine to a desert island. One of your own production and one of your competitors’. Which do you choose?

The decision you are asking is very difficult and I hope I’ll never have to make that choice. Firstly, I would take a Sylvaner of our production because when I taste it and close my eyes, I see the Alsace countryside gliding before me with its gently rolling hills, its flowery meadows and valleys, its good - natured inhabitants. This wine represents rather well the Alsatian environment and its denizens. On top of that, it’s the wine that will accompany quite amicably most of the culinary specialities of Alsace. Then, I would take with me a bottle of Clos Sainte - Hune, which to me is one of the greatest wines of the world, that I would be delighted to share with those who would rescue me from my desert island or - a far less enjoyable predicament if nobody came - I would drink the bottle in my last moments to help me pass happily into the other world:-)