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Jean-Marc Dreyer
Frankreich / Elsass
We discovered Jean Marc's wine in 2015 at a natural wine salon in France and it didn't really compare to what we knew from Alsace. Back then, when we started exploring Alsatian wine, we were confronted with a wide spectrum of flavors and aromas, ranging from fine and deep minerality, to richness from late harvest, to wines with residual sugar. But something that was not so easy to find, something that was not particularly common in the region, was white grapes that were allowed to ferment with their skins.
On the contrary, Jean Marc's production consists mainly of them. He has shown many other Alsatian winemakers the beauty that can be achieved by macerating Alsatian grapes. It is a long, questionable journey for a winemaker to reach such a level of risk acceptance and confidence in his grapes.
Jean Marc Dreyer's path began with a wine diploma at the Alsatian wine school of Obernai and his time as an apprentice with Patrick Meyer, one of the pioneers of natural wine in Alsace, was an important step in his career. At the same time, he worked with Raphael Beysang, winemaker in Beaujolais, with whom he shares much about winemaking and cultivation. When you spend time with these winemakers, you realize that the focus is on growing the grapes, not making the wine in the cellar. Their goal is to get the purest, highest quality grapes possible by practicing clean and thoughtful farming.
Their research courage and commitment to purity has not yet reached a limit. For example, Jean Marc is reducing the number of vines in his vineyard to allow for the planting of trees to create a greater diversity of living organisms. He is leaving his vines unpruned in some plots as an experiment, a difficult decision as he knows these vines will not produce much for many years. He takes it in stride that some 2000L vats are turning to vinegar, saying that this is the part of the grapes and juice that needs to be returned to nature, as the harvest this vintage was too good. What we are trying to say here is that the path of a winemaker making 100% wine with no additives nor sulfites is not that easy. Jean Marc has spent many years torn between the dilemma of whether or not to use a small dose of sulfites. This question was a great research for him, one could even speak of a spiritual journey. A good article about Jean Marc was written by backinalsace.com (recommended reading!) and the author gives a quote that best represents the winemaker: "Don't confuse what you need with what the wine needs". He has completely eliminated sulfite from his wines since 2011. He feels good about it and his wines are getting better in all aspects year after year.
On the contrary, Jean Marc's production consists mainly of them. He has shown many other Alsatian winemakers the beauty that can be achieved by macerating Alsatian grapes. It is a long, questionable journey for a winemaker to reach such a level of risk acceptance and confidence in his grapes.
Jean Marc Dreyer's path began with a wine diploma at the Alsatian wine school of Obernai and his time as an apprentice with Patrick Meyer, one of the pioneers of natural wine in Alsace, was an important step in his career. At the same time, he worked with Raphael Beysang, winemaker in Beaujolais, with whom he shares much about winemaking and cultivation. When you spend time with these winemakers, you realize that the focus is on growing the grapes, not making the wine in the cellar. Their goal is to get the purest, highest quality grapes possible by practicing clean and thoughtful farming.
Their research courage and commitment to purity has not yet reached a limit. For example, Jean Marc is reducing the number of vines in his vineyard to allow for the planting of trees to create a greater diversity of living organisms. He is leaving his vines unpruned in some plots as an experiment, a difficult decision as he knows these vines will not produce much for many years. He takes it in stride that some 2000L vats are turning to vinegar, saying that this is the part of the grapes and juice that needs to be returned to nature, as the harvest this vintage was too good. What we are trying to say here is that the path of a winemaker making 100% wine with no additives nor sulfites is not that easy. Jean Marc has spent many years torn between the dilemma of whether or not to use a small dose of sulfites. This question was a great research for him, one could even speak of a spiritual journey. A good article about Jean Marc was written by backinalsace.com (recommended reading!) and the author gives a quote that best represents the winemaker: "Don't confuse what you need with what the wine needs". He has completely eliminated sulfite from his wines since 2011. He feels good about it and his wines are getting better in all aspects year after year.
