Domaine Heywang

The small 7 hectare family estate in the town of Heiligenstein was created in the 1950s by Jean and Aline Heywang. After wine studies in nearby Rouffach, their son, Hubert, took the helm in the early 1990s. When his wife Michèle left her job in the office of an industrial group to join him to manage the winery affairs she was a young mother, and the change of life was a pivotal moment. She reasoned that the vines should receive the same care as she gave her child, and a conversion to organic working followed. 'I want wines that don't lie,' she says. No chemical fertilisers or insecticides have been used since 1987 and the vineyards flourish with biodiversity. Yields are modest and the harvest is done by hand. In the winery the grapes are whole berry pressed, and fermentations are with natural yeasts. Heywang produce the classic range of Alsace varieties up to Grand Cru level, and are one of the few specialists producing the savagnin rose grape. Under the appellation Klevener of Heiligenstein it is the true traminer, or savagnin, of nearby Jura, and has a distinctive pink skin when ripe.