REKOVIN: The estate has been in your family for generations was it always obvious that you should take over?

LUC FALLER: That's a good question, because it was not obvious at all! I begun to work on the estate in 1982, after my military service. I used to do odd jobs at the same time, and I was also taking correspondence courses. It took me 10 years to think about it and take my decision, I was hostile because of the way my father was working. But then, he retired in 1988 and I had to decide, as no brother nor sister wanted to take over.

RV: who and how many are working in the domaine?

LF: We run the domaine mostly in family, my wife to share our passion at the tasting cellar and I handle the cellar work and the vineyard myself and with seasonnal workers.

RV: In your mind what were the major challenges you faced compared to the generations before you? And what do you want to do differently from previous generations?

LF: The biggest challenge was to be able to produce grappe and wine without using synthetic chemicals. It was a brand new way of thinking here, a real generational conflict. My father didn't want me to struggle as he struggled before me. For him, chemicals brought comfort to his work, after the World War II. He had the feeling I was going backwards. It took him some time to accept, but then he finally understood.

RV: What is your vision on the work in wineyards/in the cellar and for your wine?

LF: I want to believe in Nature, in its capacity to produce good fruits, good grapes naturally. My aim is to understand interactions between all the elements and the vines and to help without disrupting. I want to produce real and authentic wines with living world energy in it, with nutritional values.

RV: Did covid change or have an impact on your work?

LF: Nature does not wait for us, life's going on, so Covid did not change our work.

RV: When we met in Angers last year you gave growers not converting to Eco/Bio little chance to survive, do you see this development stronger or weaker today?

LF: This trend is stronger and stronger as we can observe figures of conversion to organic culture last year. I think conventional wine culture has no future. More and more vinegrowers want to convert because their market are collapsing, but unfortunately it's not by conviction, they are forced to.

RV: I find you have an evident presence of energy and pure expression in your wines at the same time you are launching new wines more in the direction of "Natural  wines" . Is that correct and will the taste of your wine change as an effect?

LF: To me, biodynamic wines reveal a unique identity, more singular, a pure exression as some people would say. Wines are more vibrant, they contain life. Natural wines are an extension of our work, for now we juste tried a few new cuvées without changing the existing ones. Our natural wines are automatically different in taste because we make macerations (orange wine style) so it's a different style of vinification that we are exploring.  The white grapes are processed as reds, so we extract more polyphenols, more tanins, the touch, the texture in the mouth will be different than traditional white wine, with less than 30mg/L So2.

RV: We put three of your bottles in a box next week; Your Riesling Fruehmess 2017, your Pinot Blanc barrique 2013 and Pinot Noir 2017, anything particular about the wine or the year or for that matter you think is a good mix with food?

LF: I think 2017 is a great vintage in Alsace. Wines are very well balanced which shows in the Riesling Fruehmesse 2017 and the Pinot Noir 2017. The Riesling Fruehmess can be enjoyed thru the cours of a meal from a Fish dish, to cheeze and the dessert for exampel a lemon tart. Our Pinot noir pairs well on cheese and cold meat platter, red sauce pastas or grilled red tuna. Finally the Pinot Blanc Barrique It will pair exceptionally well with a chicken in a creamy mushrooms sauce, or a creamy parsnip or mushroom soup.

*Intervju från april 2021.