France | Faced with global warming, Clos Saint Landelin tries out Syrah

(Rouffach) Planting Syrah in Alsace, a grape variety traditionally present in more torrid areas, such as the Rhone Valley in the south of France, or Australia? This is the challenge attempted by a wine estate in the north-east of France, anxious to find a viticultural solution to global warming.

About twenty kilometers south of Colmar, near the German border, Clos Saint Landelin covers 28 hectares. Its vines produce pinot noir, crémant, riesling or gewurztraminer wines, protected from rain-laden westerly winds by the Ballons d’Alsace, two peaks in the Vosges.

With rainfall similar to that of Montpellier, a city in the south, “it is the driest place in Alsace”, explains Thomas Muré, 42, who has been managing this family vineyard for several years with his sister Véronique.

A dry climate which is certainly nothing new, but which is amplified by global warming. Like many others, the region, already poorly watered, has not received a single drop of rain for weeks. Between the rows of vines, the ocher earth, dried up, rises to dust when you tread on it.

“If climate change continues in the same direction, what are we doing” to adapt wine production and continue to make “great wines”?, asks Thomas Muré.

” Experimentation ”

This question, his father, René Muré, asked himself more than ten years ago when he noticed “that the dates of the harvest were arriving earlier and earlier”, explains the oenologist.

It was then necessary to find the appropriate grape variety, capable of ripening “a little more slowly”, of withstanding the heat but also the “cold winters” of Alsace.

Quite naturally, Syrah ended up imposing itself: in France, this variety is found in the Rhone Valley, but it is also present in neighboring Switzerland, Italy, Greece, South Africa, Lebanon or Australia, under the name of shiraz.

In 2010, six rows were therefore planted on the estate, with the intention of studying their behavior on a clay-limestone soil.

An “experiment” as much as a “challenge” since it was necessary to sacrifice so many rows of vines and therefore lose their production and the fruits of their sales, explains Thomas Muré.

Twelve years and six vintages later, the black grape variety gives an average of 300 bottles per year (or barely “0.3%” of the estate’s production), a cuvée for the time being confidential, marketed mainly in a circle of regulars of Clos Saint Landelin, under the name “Vin de France”, without reference to Alsace since Syrah is not considered an Alsatian grape variety, explains Mr. Muré.

“After ten years” of testing, “we realize that it is a” red wine “pleasant to drink”, with a “saline and mineral side”, which will keep “ten, twenty years without problem” , assures the winegrower.

It “immediately interested our customers”, sommeliers or individuals, all curious to “taste the first Syrah produced in Alsace”, explains his sister, Véronique Muré, 46 years old.

“There is a demand”, which “encouraged us to switch” to a “real cuvée”, with the planting “last winter” of around sixty additional ares of Syrah, i.e. in total a little less of 70 ares, continues the one who manages the commercial and administrative aspects of Clos Saint Landelin.

“A Story of Patience”

These new plants should give their first harvest “within five or six years”, she estimates. “Viticulture is always a matter of patience. »

At first, the initiative “surprised” the Alsatian wine world, recognizes Thomas, Syrah not being one of the seven Alsatian grape varieties (pinots noir, blanc and gris, riesling, muscat, sylvaner and gewurztraminer).

However, the profession is very aware of “climate change” and “everyone is looking for solutions”, continues Mr. Muré. “A handful” of Alsatian winegrowers have thus followed suit to also plant Syrah, without however embarking on marketing for the moment, slip Thomas and Véronique.

Does this mean that in the long term, Syrah is destined to become commonplace in Alsace? Difficult to move forward. But “if (global) warming continues, […] so Syrah has its place in Alsace,” Véronique wants to believe.