Gisselbrecht, Alsace, France

Claude comes from a long line of Alasian grapegrowers, from generation to generation, since the 17th century the Gisselbrecht family have been winegrowers.

It was in 1936 with Willy Gisselbrecht, Claude's grandfather that the winery began to win its notoriety, and further with his three children.

Today the family owns a domain of 17 hectares in the best soils of Dambach La Ville and the surrounding villages in Alsace.

Claude Gisselbrecht is in charge of Marketing/ Exports and has had experience in the United States and England wine markets. Claude is also involved in nearly all aspects of the winemaking process.

When I caught up with Claude at the family winery in late September last year, Claude and all his pickers were frantically working to bring in the grapes, as the weather was starting to turn on the few days that I was in Alsace.

Even with several truck loads of ripe grapes arriving during the afternoon, Claude was cool, calm and collected and even found time to show me around, sample some previous vintages and plan his first visit to New Zealand which was in April of this year.

Claude and his families' focus is to work more and more on there micro-cuvees and continue to produce outstanding small parcels.