2018 L’Éxutoire is the result of nature. When we work with nature, we have an idea of the way it will go, but every time vintage turns out differently from what we expected. So, you have two options: One is to fight against this new dynamic; the other is to follow it and carefully learn from it.

Sometimes it happens in the vineyard or in the cellar. The sense of the Éxutoire is to learn about what we hadn’t foreseen.

Sylvaner is a whole concept in itself at Domaine Ostertag, a much-beloved grape and a kind of alpha and omega. On one side it’s the roots to which we continuously return like a cultural sanctuary; on another, it’s an endless playground for all kinds of experiments, a bridge towards the future, as this long-overlooked and neglected grape keeps being reinvented in the hands of passionate producers.

Here Sylvaner accounts for one-sixth of the plantings, which is about two hectares. That’s a considerable share given how overlooked it has become nowadays in Alsace. Our plots range from 30 to 80 years old and sit on different terroirs of Epfig and Nothalten, half of which are in the lieu-dit areas.

We usually blend all these plots with multiple personalities into a single wine, a sort of fundamental base. But 2018 challenged our habits on many levels and was an opportunity to create this different interpretation of the grape under the Éxutoire series, a range of one-shot wines that was initiated in 2016.

As we were about to start the harvest and make the last ripeness checks, it became clear that we would have to split the Sylvaner harvest into two distinct times, as the Nothalten plots were way ahead of the Epfig ones.

Picked one week earlier than the later batch, the Nothalten fermentations were much slower and, above all, the styles of the two lots were so different that we chose not to blend them in the end. We, therefore, bottled the Sylvaner Vieilles Vignes in September as usual and kept the Éxutoire in the tank for eight more months to let it finish its fermentation and enjoy a longer time relaxing on its lees. It was bottled in May 2020 with a balance of 13% and 1g/L of residual sugar. It’s a dry wine certified by Ecocert and Demeter.