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In constant motion, the wiry Binner explains his wines with engaging, upbeat energy while switching effortlessly between English, French, and German. He makes several distinctive and highly acclaimed Alsace Pinot Noirs from varying soils near his family\u2019s estate in Ammerschwihr, just north of Colmar. He credits his father, Joseph, for laying the foundations for success.<\/p>\n
“I have been in the vines since a child, and l learned a lot from my father,” says Binner who also studied at winegrowing schools in Alsace and Burgundy. “My father already followed the ways of organic vines, handpicking, and fermenting the grapes with indigenous yeasts. But prior to bottling he was filtering and adding small amounts of sulfur to the wines.”<\/p>\n
A 1998 visit from France’s natural wine pioneer, Marcel Lapierre, inspired a change towards producing completely “natural” wines.<\/p>\n
“The results were much more intriguing for both white and red wines,” Binner notes. Today he makes wine by “adding nothing and taking nothing away” and then bottles with little or no sulfites added.<\/p>\n
For his Alsace Pinot Noirs, Binner relies on low grape yields to achieve the ripe red fruit and depth he prefers. Binner also follows a biodynamic approach that gives the vines natural composts and “teas” rather than synthetic chemical applications.<\/span><\/p>\n “For me, wine is pleasure, and I don’t want to drink chemicals. Traditional viticulture fights Nature with pesticides and fertilizers to push grape yields higher, but it kills life in the soils. And that’s a pity, ” Binner notes. “My work is to assist and help Nature, not to dominate it. Biodynamics strengthens the vines so when the climate conditions become complicated the grapes are still very nice.”<\/p>\n After manually harvesting the Pinot Noir grapes, he prefers fermentation of whole grape clusters instead of removing the stems and crushing the fruit.<\/p>\n “When you destem and crush first, you ferment a big marmalade which gives more contact with skins and extracts harsh tannins,’ he says. “With whole clusters you have fruitier wines and more elegant tannins.”<\/p>\n In the same vein, during fermentation he performs pig\u00e9age<\/em> \u00e0 pied—<\/em>using feet, instead of mechanical methods, to break up and submerge the mass of grapes that rises to the top of the tank. This allows extraction of red color but again without imparting harsh tannins.<\/span><\/p>\n “With your feet, you can feel the temperatures better inside the fermentation, and then you can be more gentle and precise,” Binner says.<\/p>\n Once fermentation ends, he does a partial, gentle pressing, again to achieve softer, elegant wines with freshness and energy rather than heaviness.<\/p>\n In terms of specific vineyards, Bin The 2015 Domaine Christian Binner, Alsace Pinot Noir\u00a0<\/strong>is a sheer pleasure with red raspberry aromas and flavors, ample concentration and superb freshness through a mouthwatering, fresh finish. Like all of Binner’s reds, there’s not a hint of intrusive oak to mask the wine’s pure, transparent fruitiness. A wine with brilliant, delicious personality!<\/p>\n At the 2017 RAW WINE Fair, Binner poured the equally splendid 2016 Domaine Christian Binner, Alsace Pinot<\/strong> Noir.<\/p>\n![\"c](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.daveswinecellar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/c-binner.jpeg?resize=431%2C323\")
ner works with both fully mature Pinot Noir vines and younger vines. Fifty years ago, his father, Joseph, planted Pinot Noir on the lower slope of the Grand Cru Kaefferkopf vineyard in a mix of chalky limestone and granite soils. In 2002, Christian planted Pinot Noir vines on the Hinterberg vineyard’s granite soils.<\/span><\/p>\n