Moenchreben Rorschwihr Auxerrois
⏳ Drinking Window
2010 - 2018
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Alsatian onion tart, roasted pork with apples, creamy mushroom fricassee
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the historic Moenchreben (monks' vines) lieu-dit in Rorschwihr, this wine pays homage to the medieval monastic orders who first recognized the exceptional potential of these marly clay-limestone soils. Domaine Rolly Gassmann crafts this Auxerrois with their signature patient approach, allowing the grapes to achieve maximum physiological ripeness before a slow, natural fermentation. The resulting wine is a masterclass in texture and complexity, far exceeding typical expectations for the Auxerrois variety. It reveals a rich, slightly off-dry profile balanced by a vibrant mineral core, showcasing notes of ripe yellow orchard fruits, white flowers, and a distinct smoky, honeyed complexity derived from both the terroir and the estate's extensive cellar aging prior to release.
🍾 About the Producer
Domaine Rolly Gassmann emerged in 1967 through the marriage of Marie-Thérèse Rolly and Louis Gassmann, unifying two families with winemaking lineages in Alsace dating to 1676 and 1611 respectively. Situated in Rorschwihr along the complex Ribeauvillé fault line, the estate commands over 50 hectares characterized by a mosaic of 21 distinct limestone-dominant subsoil profiles. Opting out of the Alsace Grand Cru hierarchy in favor of expressing traditional historic lieux-dits, current winemaker Pierre Gassmann operates strictly within biodynamic rhythms. The viticultural approach champions late physiological and phenological harvesting, intentionally courting noble rot across micro-parcels. In the cellar, natural fermentations proceed unhurried for four to six months. Celebrated for an obsessive dedication to bottle maturation, Rolly Gassmann stores millions of bottles in a state-of-the-art multi-level cellar before commercial release. The benchmark portfolio spans opulent, long-lived expressions from lieux-dits such as Silberberg, Kappelweg, and Pflaenzerreben, alongside lusciously concentrated Vendanges Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles.
🍇 Grapes
Auxerrois
🍷 ABV
12.5-13.5%