Domaine Christophe Mittnacht is located in the beautiful town of Hunawihr, a lovely little wine village between Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr, 12 kilometres north of Colmar.
Three generations ago, the estate started with grandfather Paul, who in turn passed the estate on to his two sons, André and Louis. The two sons each had a son: the cousins Christophe and Marc, who ran the estate together for a while. The latest development in the family tree of the winery is a split. In the summer of 2019, cousins Christophe and Marc both decided to go their own way. They parted on good terms and divided the hectares equally between them.
Christophe's vineyards are located in the municipality of Hunawihr, which has a subsoil of mainly muschelkalk. It is a limestone formed by shells and was formed 2.5 million years ago. On top of that lies a layer of marl limestone and clay.
It produces a wine type that can be aromatically 'restrained' in a certain sense, but above all has a fleshy and complex structure, with tension, saltiness and minerality.
These characteristics are only reinforced by Christophe's biodynamic work. It is the way of working to allow terroir to speak even more.
In the vineyards, no synthetic agents are used as a matter of course and there is great respect for the natural cycle of the vine. It simply produces the healthiest grapes of the highest quality. The harvests are done manually and in the cellar intervention is kept to a minimum. So no oenological products, apart from a minimum of sulphur during bottling. Why? For the health of the consumer, but above all to be able to let the origin and the terroir speak as much as possible.
And it does! Christophe is a master in translating muschelkalk into his wines. What is also striking is how the wines are a reflection of the maker: quiet, shy almost, soft, full of concentration and typicity. He is also terroir himself.
Christophe is married to Yuka, a Japanese star chef/sushi chef from Tokyo. Now in Alsace she runs a gîte where she also gives sushi workshops and Christophe of course takes care of the wines. Her sliding table principle, where she serves guests delicious delicate dishes (with the wines of the estate as a guideline), is a huge success. It usually takes months before you can get a spot. Fortunately, that is less true for Christophe's wines.
Come on in!
