“Alsace has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to position itself on a par with Burgundy red wines”

s has become customary now for several years, the weather in 2023 led the 438 members of the Alsace producers’ organisation Synvira to question the future of their wine industry. Aside from a few vineyard blocks hived off for late-harvest wines, harvesting has now come to a close and is likely to confirm a short crop for Riesling. The ‘king’ of Alsace grapes seems to be the most sensitive to global warming, failing to cope well with high temperatures and having to contend with small clusters. In the least favourable situations, growers had to settle for yields of 10 to 20 hl/ha, and even in the best-case scenarios, they were no higher than 55 hl/ha, a far cry from the 75 hl/ha authorised this year. Conversely, Pinot noir thrived this year, producing large, heavy clusters of big grapes. “Our current climate is the same as in Burgundy twenty years ago. Alsace has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to position itself on a par with Burgundy red wines”, claims Francis Backert, chairman of Synvira. Hence, the reason why he believes vineyards should not be planted indiscriminately and the vineyard sites best suited to Pinot noir should be identified. Ultimately, this would allow growers to benefit from higher value wines, despite current yields (60 hl/ha under the Alsace appellation and 55 hl/ha for designated sites) being probably lowered to, say, 40 hl/ha in the future.