Today on the podcast we have Julien Schaal, winemaker and owner of Julien Schaal wines.
He is based in Alsace and exclusively works with Grand Cru Rieslings there. He first visited South Africa in the early 2000s when he worked as a cellar hand for Bouchard Finlayson. During that time a friendship developed with Gordon Newton-Johnson and an opportunity to produce his own South African wine was proposed. Julien has been coming to South Africa to make his Chardonnay and Syrah wines ever since.
I wanted to chat to Julien about the similarities and differences in making wine in Alsace and South Africa. They seemed, to me at least, to be very different climates, and obviously working with different varieties, so I wondered if there was much crossover.
We also chat about the current state of Alsace wine in the world market, Julien exports 100% of his Alsace production, so he has quite a good perspective on that side of the business.
I give you Julien Schaal…
