New Arrivals from Domaine Brand & Fils
It’s a story of ploughshare and patrimony. First Lucien Brand in 1956, then his son Charles until the early 2000s, and now, most recently, Phillipe Brand in the present day: three generations of winemakers have risen to their calling within this time-resistant Alsace terrain. It’s terrain that the Brand family ancestors (and not just the sons) have tilled and tended to since the 1700s. The family lines run deep inside this patch of earth at Domaine Brand and Fils (‘Brand and Son’), a 15-hectare estate in Ergersheim, 20km west of Strasbourg. A people so rooted in a place that they work with heightened senses – part inheritance, part intuition – in silent understanding and appreciation of the land. It’s this same connectedness and sensibility, so profound and particular to the environment, that Phillipe Brand utilizes to unique effect in his winemaking – the fine-balanced biodiversity of the territory, its roots, its soil, its micro-organisms, all vivify the wines biodynamically, without artificial additives or intervention.
The estate was originally used for conventional farming, cultivating crops of wheat, tobacco, and grapes with pastures for animal grazing. Many of the same agricultural processes and incumbent structures remain unchanged from the earliest days – Brand and Fils have converted old barns and repurposed farmyard apparatus for use in their winemaking. And, just like grandfather Lucien in his day, Phillipe still ploughs the vineyards with a horse-drawn rig that, under the fierce July sun, is retired at midday. It was Lucien who started Brand and Fils’ focus on viticulture and established the site as a winery; he expanded the vineyards to a full ten-hectare plot, before Charles began the very natural progression into organic viticulture during the 1990s (with formal certification arriving in 2000). All the while, an inquisitive young Phillipe was already helping with harvests and learning, as all natural winemakers do, to trust the feel of everything he gleaned from his grandfather’s vineyards where nature thrived with family history, instantly palpable in his hands.
With winemaking as Phillipe’s main focus, he worked with his father to gain full Demeter biodynamic agriculture certification in 2015. Since then, Brand and Fils have gradually expanded their offering to bring some of the most clean, vibrant, and exciting natural wines that we’re pleased to present here. The vines average around 40 years in age (with some up to 70 years old), and are grown predominantly on clay and limestone, with some grey marl. Phillipe strives to give the wine a unique vitality and living presence by preserving the natural musts and yeasts from the grapes (technical intervention such as filtration or chemical additives are prohibited). For Philippe Brand, biodynamic winemaking increases the fertility and fecundity of the terrain by stimulating greater biodiversity. Nature and tradition are generous to one another in reciprocity on the farm, vivifying everything that’s knowable and unseen. What’s more: this Alsatian history is all alive today inside these truly “living” wines.
We have put together a mixed case of 6 bottles at 15% off the individual price. There are only 5 of these available on a first-come, first-served basis.
