The Cattin family has been part of the Alsace landscape for so long that their story reads like a history of the region itself.
Backstory
The lineage traces back to Francois Cattin, who left Porrentruy in Switzerland to settle in Voegtlinshoffen and turned to winemaking in 1720. Around 1850 Antoine Cattin committed the family fully to the vine. The estate takes its name from Joseph Cattin (1882 to 1963), a third-generation grower and grafting pioneer during the phylloxera crisis who was known locally as the King of Muscat. In 1978 brothers Jacques and Jean-Marie took over, and today Jacques Cattin and his wife Anais run the house, joined by the next generation, Jacques Cattin Jr.
The Region
Voegtlinshoffen is a small village on the foothills of the Vosges Mountains in Alsace, France. The estate owns parcels in prized sites including the Grand Cru Hatschbourg, benefiting from the dry, sunny mesoclimate the Vosges rain shadow provides.
Vineyards and Farming
Cattin is among the largest family-owned and family-operated estates in Alsace, farming roughly 90 hectares of vineyards. The family has moved toward organic and more environmentally minded practices in recent years, and has expanded by taking on the Edouard Leiber and Theo Cattin domains.
The Wines
The estate works the classic Alsatian grapes, from Riesling and Pinot Gris to Gewurztraminer and Muscat. Sparkling Cremant d'Alsace has been a major focus since 1978, and the house pairs everyday bottlings with single-vineyard and Grand Cru cuvees. A dedicated tasting and tourism venue, the Belvedere, opened in 2017.
