Medaille Pinot Noir
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 2–5 years from release.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Roast duck breast with cherry reduction, pan-seared pork tenderloin, or Alsatian tarte flambée with wild mushrooms.
✨ Technical Specifications
Cultivated on the sub-Vosgian foothills around the southern entrance of the Alsatian vineyard corridor, this red bottling highlights Pinot Noir grown on predominantly clay-limestone and sandstone soils. The grapes undergo destemming followed by a short cold pre-fermentation maceration to extract gentle color and primary fruit character without aggressive extraction. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats with light daily pump-overs, succeeded by maturation in neutral vessels to preserve freshness, crisp red-fruit aromatics, and fine varietal tension.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1959 at the southern gateway of the Route des Vins d'Alsace, La Cave du Vieil-Armand takes its name from the legendary Hartmannswillerkopf peak, where local winegrowers united after the devastation of World War I to revive the region's historic slopes. Today, this cooperative unites approximately 75 to 80 winegrowing families managing roughly 150 hectares spread across the sub-Vosgian hills between Cernay and Guebwiller. Viticulture benefits from east-to-south exposures, sheltering Vosges microclimates, and diverse clay-limestone and marno-sandstone topsoils, prominently exemplified in the Grand Cru Ollwiller and the historical Château Ollwiller estate. Farmed under Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE 3) guidelines with expanding certified organic parcels, the estate focuses on terroir-driven precision and purity of varietal fruit. Winemaking emphasizes gentle handling and temperature-controlled stainless steel vinification, yielding expressive dry bottlings, classic Crémant d'Alsace, and celebrated, botrytis-affected Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris Vendanges Tardives and Sélections de Grains Nobles.
🍇 Grapes
Pinot Noir
🍷 ABV
12.5% - 13.0%