Our vacation was spent, mainly, in our van travelling from Ireland to Switzerland through France. The goal was to combine pleasure with a bit of work - where work would be the driving and pleasure the visit to different wine makers.

Our first stop was in Orschwihr, Alsace at the Domaine Valentin Zusslin, www.valentin-zusslin.com. Rain prevented a visit to the vineyards but certainly not to the cellar. Marie showed us the new cellar which will have more room for the aging of the wines and is situated just below the presses to allow the transfer of the most from the press to the vats by gravity. The idea is to streamline the process of winemaking from the vineyard to the bottle with as few interactions as possible. This means hand picking the grapes into small crates, a second examination of the grapes before crushing, pneumatic pressing and transfer to the vats for the fermentation. Generally, Zusslin's attitude is that wine does not improve when handled too often. There are still a few things that need to be done but everything will be ready for the new vinteage.

With all this care it is no wonder that the wines from Zusslin get better and better. With the experience and knowledge of three generations in the vineyards and cellar a lot of knowhow goes into the wines. Now having produced biodynamically for well over 10 years the rhythm of this way of prodcution is internalised not only in the vineyards and cellar but in dayly life.

The wines I personally like best are: Riesling Grand Cru "Pfingstberg" 2001, Riesling Clos Liebenberg 2002, Muscat Cuvee Marie 2001 and as an aperitif the Cremant d'Alsace made with Riesling and Auxerrois grapes. There are still a few more to discover, especially the late harvested ones, and I will approach those one by one as my palate is getting more educated.