Online: Alsace's Domaine Rieffel with Lucas Rieffel and Emilie Cousin & West London Wine School

We are absolutely thrilled to announce a wonderful and very special evening hosting the passionate winemakers Lucas Rieffel and Emilie Cousin of Domaine Rieffel in Alsace. Not only does this exciting domaine produce some terrific traditional Alsatian wine, they are also innovative and creative in crafting unique wines that have the hallmarks of minimal-intervention wine such as very low use of sulfur dioxide and skin contact on some of the white wines. WLWS founder Jimmy Smith has been a collector of this unique domaine since first visiting three years ago, and has happily been building his stocks up for this tasting! Domaine Rieffel The Rieffel winery is in the heart of the village of Mittelbergheim. A place that feels like it’s close to somewhere else, like Heaven’s Door. Somewhere special, where something special is happening. That something is a group of winemakers that has developed a loose collective approach to modern Alsace wine making. The group includes Lucas Rieffel, Jean-Pierre Rietsch, Catherine Riss, André Kleinknecht, Ludo Rohrer and Antoine Kreydenweiss from nearby Andlau. The individuals come with different experience, influences and reputations, but have somehow developed a fresh way forward. Associated with the group are several local and not-so-local artists that are involved in designing graphics around the different wines. The domaine has been fully certified for organic farming methods since the 2012 harvest, with the conversion starting back in the early 2000’s. There is a speciality of grape variety with the various vineyards. On the Grand Cru vineyards, that speciality maps to Pinot Gris on the Kirchberg de Barr, Sylvaner and Riesling on the Zotzenberg and Riesling on the Wiebelsberg. On the five main lieux-dits, it is Pinot Noir on the Runz, Pinot Blanc on the Gebreit, Riesling on the Brandluft, Pinot Gris on the Hagel and Gewurztraminer on the Gesetz. This gives a strong aspect of linking the variety, to the soil type and mesoclimate of each of these vineyards. Tasting Date: Tuesday 13th July 2021 at 6:30pm (the tasting will last approximately 2 hours). TASTING FEE STRUCTURE: For this special two-hour tasting, an exclusive tasting kit is included in the listed price which includes a 75ml tasting sample of each wine, as well as tasting mat, tasting note paper and pen. Note: Tasting kits will be despatched to attendees within the week leading up to the tasting. Upon placing your order, you will receive a link to confirm all delivery details in your booking confirmation email. PLEASE NOTE: Currently, we are only able to deliver tasting kits to addresses within the UK. DON'T WANT TO RECEIVE A TASTING KIT? We understand that not everyone will want to receive the wine samples, and would rather just register to participate in the online evening without the wines. That is absolutely fine! The fee to just register for this evening without receiving a tasting kit is £10. Just enter the promotional code: 75REGONLY when checking out to ensure you just pay the registration cost.  Tasting Kit: What's Included:

• 75ml tasting sample of each wine (6 in total) contained in a sterilised glass bottle and preserved with an inert gas (designed specifically for wine preservation)
• Tasting mat
• Tasting note sheet
• West London Wine School pen

Wines Included in Tasting Kit:

• Riesling Vielles Vignes 2018
• Granite Pinot Blanc/Auxerrois 2018
• Granite Pinot Blanc/Auxerrois 2019
• Wiebelsberg Grand Cru Riesling 2016
• Lachler Prise Gewurztraminer/Riesling 2018 (orange wine)
• Nature Pinot Noir 2020

TASTING FORMAT: Lucas Rieffel, Emilie Cousin and Jimmy Smith will host this exclusive tasting live at 6:30pm on Tuesday 13th July 2021. This single-evening tasting will be approximately 2 hours in length.  Unable to commit on the evening? No problem! Anyone registered for this tasting will gain access to the video recording of the live event, so you can always revisit any of these at anytime in the future - whether its because you missed participating in the live evening or if you want to revisit the presentation at a later date.