Domaine Schoffit

The domaine started by Bernard’s father, Robert at 10 hectares, is based near Colmar in the kingdom of the local vegetable growers, Domaine Schoffit has produced only wine since 1973, the former business was mixed agriculture with fruits and vegetables. The family tree dates back to 1599 showing the Schoffit has always been connected to vines.

It was Bernard, some 30 years ago, who embarked on an ambitious program of buying vineyard land in the central part of Rangen, including the Clos St Théobold which faces due south. Through sheer determination and ambition, he reclaimed all 6.5 hectares, a good part of which had been abandoned because it was too steep to work.

The volcanic Rangen in Thann is one of Alsace’s most famous and surely most southern single-vineyard sites.

Today Bernard is still very active in the vineyard, though he has now formally passed the reins to the third generation, his son Alexandre. And from these incredibly steep and rocky slopes, with extremely low yields, Alexandre is making simply extraordinary wines from each of the Alsace Grand Cru varieties.

In the Vineyard

The Rangen represents about 1/3 of the family’s vineyard holdings of 18.8 ha, but requires about 2/3 of the family’s time to work these incredibly steep slopes. And the yields here are as low as half those of most other Grand Cru vineyards.

Schoffit’s 6.5 ha is almost 30 % of Rangen and makes it the largest holder of this prestigious Grand Cru, just ahead of Zind-Humbrecht. Their plantings are made up of 40% each Riesling and Pinot Gris, 15% Gewürztraminer and 5% Muscat.

In this terroir Pinot Gris moves into conversation about the ‘world’s greatest white wines’ with the smoky notes coming both from the terroir and the variety imparting a rare energy and intensity to the wines without excess alcohol or sugar and with perfectly pitched acidity. Gewürztraminer is also elevated to exceptional levels in this vineyard producing wines of outstanding balance, once again without any excess of alcohol or sugar and with pitch-perfect acidity.

Today, the Schoffit domaine of 18.8 ha includes vines in Colmar and Niedermorschwihr as well as Thann, along with a very small (0.2 ha) but prized holding in the granite terroir of the prestigious Sommerberg Grand Cru.

“Concerning our viticultural practices, all our vineyards are organic, and we also started to work biodynamic a few years ago. In order to show more transparency, I decided in 2016 to launch the official certification of the estate, but for administrative reasons it was stretched over different years. The first wines officially labeled fully organic will be some cuvées of the 2019 vintage (Harth Riesling and Harth Pinot Gris for example), and the rest of the classic range will follow in the 2020 vintage. For the Grands Crus, it will be from the 2022 vintage. The official certification for biodynamic is in progress, but we are still waiting to know from when we will be able to use it on the labels. But as we are officially in the process, we are allowed to communicate that we are bio and biodynamic!”

Alexandre Schoffit

Where in the World is Domaine Schoffit?

Domaine Schoffit is based in Colmar in Alsace. The Rangen Grand Cru is the Southernmost Grand Cru of Alsace.