• A Franco-German cuvée was ordered to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, which in 1953 sealed the reconciliation between the two countries.

  • Two winegrowers, one on each side of the Rhine, were selected to carry out the blend.

  • “It is expected that we will produce 2,500 bottles in total,” explains Pierre-Yves Meyer.

The Franco-German friendship can also be tasted.

Pierre-Yves Meyer and Fabian Zähringer are currently working on it.

The two winegrowers, the first in Alsace and the second in neighboring Baden-Württemberg, have just harvested each on their own in order to compose a common cuvée.

Why such an initiative ?

“It was the German Embassy in Paris that caught my wind that our respective parents had already done it in 2007,” explains the Frenchman.

“So they asked us to do it again for the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Élysée Treaty”.

At the beginning of next year, the two countries have again planned to meet to celebrate their reconciliation, like General de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer on January 22, 2023. French and German deputies should thus meet on January 22 in Versailles, as they had already done in 2003.

“We are even ready to serve it at the Elysée”

With this white assembly on their tables?

Pierre-Yves Meyer is not yet sure.

“It is expected that we will produce 2,500 bottles in total.

Much of it is already ordered by the German Embassy but we don't know where it will all be drunk.

It would be fashionable for our cuvée to be chosen for all the ceremonies.

We are even ready to serve it at the Elysée if necessary!

“Laughs the producer located in Blienschwiller (Bas-Rhin).

That is 70 km from Heitersheim, where the “Weingut Zähringer” estate is located.

The two winegrowers, who were not in contact "but the friendship had remained between the families", should precisely carry out the bottling across the Rhine "in December".

That's a little fast for a traditional white wine, with Riesling on the French side.

“Yes, it's a bit abrupt, but it won't be Beaujolais Nouveau either,” laughs Pierre-Yves Meyer again, without yet having the name of the famous cuvée, or what label will be affixed to it.

“It will give rise to a beautiful well-watered evening!

»

Like, finally, the one who had launched the first Franco-German vintage, in 2007. “Originally, it was two friends, a German and a Frenchman, who ran a travel agency in Friborg and each had brought wine .

Then they had mixed the two and had found the brilliant idea.

They wanted to make a cuvée of it, spoke about it to a journalist from the daily

L'Alsace

and my brother was working there.

We accepted and the customs solutions were found.

Nor should it be a concern sixteen years later.

After all, “wine has no borders”.

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  • Wine

  • Germany

  • Great East

  • Elysium

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