Say “Riesling” and one question usually follows: is it sweet?
Sometimes. But not here.
The new Julien Schaal releases are dry Alsace Grand Cru Rieslings built around freshness, acidity and the character of three very different vineyards.
They are also an excellent reminder that Riesling is not one fixed style. It can be fine and precise, broad and powerful, or tightly wound and mineral. The grape is the same. The person making the wine is the same. What changes is the place.
Alsace sits in north-eastern France, tucked between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine. It is best known for white wines, with Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat among its most important varieties.
Unlike many French wine regions, Alsace usually puts the grape variety clearly on the label. That makes the wines seem straightforward at first. Riesling is Riesling, surely?
Then you start looking at the vineyards.
Alsace has 51 recognised Grand Cru sites, each with its own combination of soil, slope, altitude and exposure. Limestone can produce something very different from granite. A vineyard that holds water behaves differently from one that drains quickly. A steep south-facing slope receives a different amount of warmth and sunlight from a gentler east-facing site.
The best way to understand this is not through a geology lesson. It is by opening the wines.
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru ‘Rosacker’ Riesling 2024
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru ‘Schoenenbourg’ Riesling 2024
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru ‘Sommerberg’ Riesling 2024
Julien and Sophie Schaal make wine in both South Africa and France. Their South African range focuses on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, while their Alsace project is dedicated to Grand Cru Riesling.
They work with fruit from selected vineyards across the region and keep the winemaking deliberately consistent.
The grapes are harvested by hand, slowly pressed as whole bunches and fermented naturally at cool temperatures. Malolactic fermentation is prevented to retain freshness and acidity.
This approach gives the three wines a common thread. You can recognise the same careful handling and dry, precise style across the range, but each vineyard still speaks with its own voice.
The cooler 2024 vintage makes the comparison particularly clear. After a wet and challenging growing season, the best Rieslings have emerged with moderate alcohol, firm acidity and a more classical, restrained shape.
Julien and Sophie Schaal make wine in both South Africa and France. Their South African range focuses on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, while their Alsace project is dedicated to Grand Cru Riesling.
They work with fruit from selected vineyards across the region and keep the winemaking deliberately consistent.
The grapes are harvested by hand, slowly pressed as whole bunches and fermented naturally at cool temperatures. Malolactic fermentation is prevented to retain freshness and acidity.
This approach gives the three wines a common thread. You can recognise the same careful handling and dry, precise style across the range, but each vineyard still speaks with its own voice.
The cooler 2024 vintage makes the comparison particularly clear. After a wet and challenging growing season, the best Rieslings have emerged with moderate alcohol, firm acidity and a more classical, restrained shape.
All three of Julien Schaal’s Rieslings are made in the exact same way however they all come from different soil types in the Alsace region. This mixed case is the expression of 3 different terroirs in Alsace.
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru 'Rosacker' Riesling 2024
If you like your Riesling focused, structured and very precise, start here.
Rosacker lies above Hunawihr on limestone-rich soils. The vineyard produces Riesling with a strong mineral backbone, bright citrus character and plenty of tension.
The 2024 brings yellow apple, nectarine and citrus together with lively acidity. It feels composed and tightly drawn, with the fruit held firmly in place by the wine’s structure.
This is the bottle to open for someone who thinks Riesling is always soft, fruity or sweet.
96 points, Vinous Drinking window: 2028–2060
Rosacker comes from five parcels with varying combinations of Triassic limestone and clay.
Anne Krebiehl MW describes a bone-dry, elegant Riesling with gentle smoke, orange blossom, citrus and a cool saline character. There is plenty of freshness, but the wine’s most striking quality is its sense of calm and completeness.
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru 'Schoenenbourg' Riesling 2024
Schoenenbourg is the broadest and most generous of the three.
The vineyard sits above Riquewihr on soils containing marl, dolomite and gypsum. These soils hold water well and tend to produce Rieslings with greater depth and weight.
There is more ripe fruit here, with citrus, peach and floral notes carried by a fuller palate. The acidity keeps everything fresh, but the wine has a sense of richness and scale that separates it from Rosacker.
If Rosacker is about precision, Schoenenbourg is about presence.
95 points, Vinous Drinking window: 2026–2056
Grown on gypsum and marl, Schoenenbourg is the broadest and most generous of the three.
The wine is expansive, lemony and bright, with a creamy texture and greater depth through the palate. It remains balanced and composed, finishing with citrus, gentle pithiness and freshness.
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru 'Sommerberg' Riesling 2024
Sommerberg comes from an extremely steep, south-facing vineyard above Niedermorschwihr and Katzenthal.
Its weathered granite soils drain quickly, while the vineyard’s altitude helps preserve freshness. The resulting wine is taut, energetic and driven by citrus and mineral flavours.
Of the three, Sommerberg feels the most immediate. It has lift, movement and a saline quality that runs through the finish.
This is Riesling with the volume turned up, but without any heaviness.
95 points, Vinous Drinking window: 2028–2055
This wine comes from the Dudenstein parcel within Sommerberg, where limestone sits beneath the granite.
It combines gentle smokiness and a surprisingly creamy texture with persistent lemon brightness and a touch of passion fruit. Bone-dry, smooth and beautifully balanced.
Alsace: Julien Schaal’s 2024 Grand Cru Rieslings
Say “Riesling” and one question usually follows: is it sweet?
Sometimes. But not here.
The new Julien Schaal releases are dry Alsace Grand Cru Rieslings built around freshness, acidity and the character of three very different vineyards.
They are also an excellent reminder that Riesling is not one fixed style. It can be fine and precise, broad and powerful, or tightly wound and mineral. The grape is the same. The person making the wine is the same. What changes is the place.
Wine Folly.
Alsace sits in north-eastern France, tucked between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine. It is best known for white wines, with Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat among its most important varieties.
Unlike many French wine regions, Alsace usually puts the grape variety clearly on the label. That makes the wines seem straightforward at first. Riesling is Riesling, surely?
Then you start looking at the vineyards.
Alsace has 51 recognised Grand Cru sites, each with its own combination of soil, slope, altitude and exposure. Limestone can produce something very different from granite. A vineyard that holds water behaves differently from one that drains quickly. A steep south-facing slope receives a different amount of warmth and sunlight from a gentler east-facing site.
The best way to understand this is not through a geology lesson. It is by opening the wines.
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru ‘Rosacker’ Riesling 2024
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru ‘Schoenenbourg’ Riesling 2024
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru ‘Sommerberg’ Riesling 2024
Julien and Sophie Schaal make wine in both South Africa and France. Their South African range focuses on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, while their Alsace project is dedicated to Grand Cru Riesling.
They work with fruit from selected vineyards across the region and keep the winemaking deliberately consistent.
The grapes are harvested by hand, slowly pressed as whole bunches and fermented naturally at cool temperatures. Malolactic fermentation is prevented to retain freshness and acidity.
This approach gives the three wines a common thread. You can recognise the same careful handling and dry, precise style across the range, but each vineyard still speaks with its own voice.
The cooler 2024 vintage makes the comparison particularly clear. After a wet and challenging growing season, the best Rieslings have emerged with moderate alcohol, firm acidity and a more classical, restrained shape.
Julien and Sophie Schaal make wine in both South Africa and France. Their South African range focuses on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, while their Alsace project is dedicated to Grand Cru Riesling.
They work with fruit from selected vineyards across the region and keep the winemaking deliberately consistent.
The grapes are harvested by hand, slowly pressed as whole bunches and fermented naturally at cool temperatures. Malolactic fermentation is prevented to retain freshness and acidity.
This approach gives the three wines a common thread. You can recognise the same careful handling and dry, precise style across the range, but each vineyard still speaks with its own voice.
The cooler 2024 vintage makes the comparison particularly clear. After a wet and challenging growing season, the best Rieslings have emerged with moderate alcohol, firm acidity and a more classical, restrained shape.
R395.00Add to basket
Julien Schaal Grand Cru Riesling Mixed Case 2026
5% Discount + Free Delivery
All three of Julien Schaal’s Rieslings are made in the exact same way however they all come from different soil types in the Alsace region. This mixed case is the expression of 3 different terroirs in Alsace.
THE WINES:
R395.00Add to basket
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru 'Rosacker' Riesling 2024
If you like your Riesling focused, structured and very precise, start here.
Rosacker lies above Hunawihr on limestone-rich soils. The vineyard produces Riesling with a strong mineral backbone, bright citrus character and plenty of tension.
The 2024 brings yellow apple, nectarine and citrus together with lively acidity. It feels composed and tightly drawn, with the fruit held firmly in place by the wine’s structure.
This is the bottle to open for someone who thinks Riesling is always soft, fruity or sweet.
96 points, Vinous
Drinking window: 2028–2060
Rosacker comes from five parcels with varying combinations of Triassic limestone and clay.
Anne Krebiehl MW describes a bone-dry, elegant Riesling with gentle smoke, orange blossom, citrus and a cool saline character. There is plenty of freshness, but the wine’s most striking quality is its sense of calm and completeness.
R395.00Add to basket
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru 'Schoenenbourg' Riesling 2024
Schoenenbourg is the broadest and most generous of the three.
The vineyard sits above Riquewihr on soils containing marl, dolomite and gypsum. These soils hold water well and tend to produce Rieslings with greater depth and weight.
There is more ripe fruit here, with citrus, peach and floral notes carried by a fuller palate. The acidity keeps everything fresh, but the wine has a sense of richness and scale that separates it from Rosacker.
If Rosacker is about precision, Schoenenbourg is about presence.
95 points, Vinous
Drinking window: 2026–2056
Grown on gypsum and marl, Schoenenbourg is the broadest and most generous of the three.
The wine is expansive, lemony and bright, with a creamy texture and greater depth through the palate. It remains balanced and composed, finishing with citrus, gentle pithiness and freshness.
R395.00Add to basket
Julien Schaal Alsace Grand Cru 'Sommerberg' Riesling 2024
Sommerberg comes from an extremely steep, south-facing vineyard above Niedermorschwihr and Katzenthal.
Its weathered granite soils drain quickly, while the vineyard’s altitude helps preserve freshness. The resulting wine is taut, energetic and driven by citrus and mineral flavours.
Of the three, Sommerberg feels the most immediate. It has lift, movement and a saline quality that runs through the finish.
This is Riesling with the volume turned up, but without any heaviness.
95 points, Vinous
Drinking window: 2028–2055
This wine comes from the Dudenstein parcel within Sommerberg, where limestone sits beneath the granite.
It combines gentle smokiness and a surprisingly creamy texture with persistent lemon brightness and a touch of passion fruit. Bone-dry, smooth and beautifully balanced.
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