The Grand Cru Saering

Out of loyalty to the oceans which covered the Rhine valley some millions of years ago, the «Sea Ring» produces wines enhanced by exquisite salty notes. Few facts about the grand cru Saering :

  • It is a 27 hectare area, of which 20 hectares are owned by the Domaine Schlumberger.
  • Its height ranges from 260 to 300 metres.
  • Its average yield is 40 hectolitres per hectare.
  • Its name means “sea ring”. This “terroir” slips down the mountain side and extends like a peninsula over the plain, forming the shape of a ring. Million years ago, this area was covered by the sea. The word “Ring” was also used to designate a Roman camp, and “Seh” originates from sehen (see in German): it is now proved that an observation camp was indeed erected there.
  • The stony and rather heavy soils of this Grand Cru suit first if all the Riesling.
  • Saering was first mentioned in 1250 and marketing began under this name in 1830.

The Nature

Like a peninsula on the plain, this calcareous block is isolated in a universe of sandstone and granite.Nature favoured the Searing Grand Cru, a hillock of heavy and fertile soils set on limestone subsoil which discerns it from its Guebwiller neighbours, but with whom it shares an impressive intermingling of small walls.

Microclimate

Protected from cold winds by the Vosges mountain range, facing south-east and benefiting from a great water supply, the vines flourish early to give the best of themselves. Victor Canales

Location

To the north-east of Guebwiller, adjacent to the Kitterlé Grand Cru which separates it by a geological fault, Saering faces the east and south-east at an altitude between 260 and 300 metres. The parcels are delimited by a network of dry-stone walls, incessantly restored for over 250 years according to the various means of the time.

Grape varieties

The sandy nature of the soil which sits upon Jurassic-age limestone, is particularly suited for Riesling. Victor Canales – To a lesser extent there is very high-quality Muscat, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris.

Terre Grand Cru Saering

Soil

Recovering the Oligocene-epoch formations from the Lattorfian age composed of sandstone pebble conglomerates from Buntsandstein and interstratified marl, the terroir reveals a calcareous subsoil which occasionally shows on the surface. The soil is mostly heavy, marl-sandy, abundantly endowed with pebbles.

To put it simply, the Saering Grand Cru forms a kind of limestone hillock covered in sandstone shingle formations and granitic fragments. This bulge stands like a guard at the outpost of the Florival valley entrance. The terroir-specific nature has intrigued popular imagination throughout the ages, seeing this calcareous block, isolated within a universe of sandstone and granite, as a vestige from the sea which once covered the Rhine valley.

The People

Identified a long time ago and living its heyday as of the 14th century, Saering preserves the secret of its nature. As its crystalline and radiant wines still don’t tell us if they reflect the memory of the sea or that of the Romans.

Heritage transmission

Saering is cited for the first time in 1250 at a time when the turbulent Guebwiller nobility was fighting over the completion of its feudal sovereignty for the region at the Murbach abbey. Saering wines, like the other neighbouring crus, had their apogee during the 14th century by travelling across the routes of Basel and Luzern heading towards Austria. As of 1830, Guebwiller and Bergholtz wine-makers marketed them under the name of the lieu-dit.

According to legend, Saering came from the word Seering which designated an iron ring apparently found one day sealed to a rock and which was used to moor the ships when the valley was a vast sea. Therefore an explanation was found for the tectonic displacements which over the geological periods made the soft subsoil stones come to the earth surface.

As for Abbot Braun, chronicler of Florival legends, he saw the etymology of the word Saering come from Roman camps: «Visible trenches from these sort of camps, he wrote in 1866, «were found on the Sehring plateau (former spelling), at the entrance of the Guebwiller valley. We know that the Germans designated their camps by the word Ring and the name Seh-ring would very have served to designate an observation camp. It’s precisely on this magical spot from where you can see everything, even the spirits, but can be seen by nobody, that Abbot Braun places the settlement of the god Odin, guardian of natural treasures in German mythology.

Victor Canales Synvira

Text CIVA website website vinalsace.com