The Binner family has farmed the village of Ammerschwihr since 1770, first in polyculture and, since the years after World War II, as dedicated wine growers. Christian Binner took the reins in 1999 and pushed the domaine toward radical naturalness.
Backstory
Christian still tends vines his grandfather planted in 1930. A trailblazer for natural wine in Alsace, he has helped pave the way for a whole generation of younger growers committed to working without additives. In 2015 he launched Les Vins Pirouettes, a collaborative project that helps fellow Alsatian organic and biodynamic farmers make zero-sulfur wines in their own cellars.
The Region
Ammerschwihr sits on the Alsace wine route near Colmar, sheltered by the Vosges mountains that cast a rain shadow and give the region one of France's driest climates. The area is known for its patchwork of soils, from granite to limestone and marl, and its steep Grand Cru hillsides, which ripen aromatic white varieties to full maturity while holding acidity.
Vineyards & Farming
The domaine covers around 11 hectares, including plots on the Grand Cru sites of Kaefferkopf, Schlossberg, and Wineck-Schlossberg, with an average vine age above 30 years. Binner earned Demeter biodynamic certification in 2020. He gathers herbs for tisanes to build the vines' resilience, folds grass under the rows rather than mowing, sprays by hand, and works some soils with horses instead of tractors. Yields are small and harvest comes late, in the search for full ripeness.
Winemaking
Grapes are harvested by hand and fermented only with native yeasts, with no chaptalization. The wines see long elevage, much of it in traditional large Alsatian foudres, inside Binner's bioclimatic cellar built from local wood and stone. There is no fining, no filtration, and no added sulfur.
The Wines
The cellar draws on the classic Alsace varieties: Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Muscat, and Gewurztraminer, plus a Cremant. Skin-macerated whites are a signature, from the field-blend Saveurs Macerees, fermented on skins for seven months, to the Pinot-based orange wine Bombisch. The Grand Cru bottlings cap a range that runs from easygoing village wines to site-specific cuvees.
