Certain localities are marked out by their soul, which may reside in the nature of their soil, the beauty of their landscape, their exposure, or the specific features of their climate. When these are shaped and maintained by successive generations of men and women, for example, in the form of a vineyard, we then speak of Terroirs.
In Soultz, these terroirs have for a long time been demarcated into several Localities, or noteworthy Crus. A document dating back to 1575 from the records of Thierenbach Priory indeed already notes four localities especially interesting for growing vines: “im Hornstein, am Mittelberg, am Orschwillerberg, am Bintzweg” (source: Médar Barth, Der Rebbau des Elsass, 1958). This document also reminds us that the names of localities in the Alsatian land registries are inherited from the region’s Germanic period.
Today, the Domaine Robert Roth takes its place as a custodian of this living heritage. Clearly identified, three of these traditional terroirs cultivated at the Domaine have undergone plot-based vinification for around thirty years, in order to respect the identity and specific nature of each of these outstanding terroirs — Mittelbourg, Hornstein, and Soultz Orschwillerbourg.