Meet the Winemaker: Domaine Sunnen-Hoffmann

A little over a decade ago, siblings Yves Sunnen and Corinne Kox-Sunnen decided to try something revolutionary with their family’s now nearly 140 year-old winery: they went organic.

It was a decision that raised more than a few eyebrows among their wine growing colleagues, and inspired more than a little laughter at their expense.

“They thought we were crazy,” Yves recalled. “But that was years ago, when we first started.”

Going Organic

In 1999, their father, Fernand Sunnen, passed away, leaving Yves and Corinne to decide whether to continue the family business. Today they are the fifth generation to run Domaine Sunnen-Hoffmann in Remerschen, on the southeastern border of Luxembourg’s Moselle Valley.

Under their direction, Domaine Sunnen-Hoffmann became the first professional winery in Luxembourg to produce pesticide-free wines; wines good enough to have earned recognition every single year since 2002 from prestigious international wine contests such as the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, Concours International des Crémants de Luxembourg et de France and placement in the taste-making Guide Hachette des Vins seven times – three times with the esteemed “coup de cœur” recognition, the publication’s highest acclaim.

“We were no longer satisfied by working in the conventional way. We wanted to work more with nature, to react more to nature,” explains Yves about their decision.

As an organic operation, they can only use natural products to keep their 8.1 hectares of vineyards healthy and productive. Varieties of flowering clover are planted between vines to prevent soil erosion, attract beneficial insects and to act as conduit for natural elements from the air to the soil. Natural plant oils and elements, such as sulfur, are applied cautiously during the growing season as immunization to potential fungus or disease. However, anything that is applied is done so as a precaution only. “These natural products are not curative, they are only preventative; we have to be there before the disease,” said Yves. In an organic vineyard, it is nature that ultimately decides whether the final harvest will be bountiful or not.

Everything is Connected

In the last five years, more than 3,000 students have visited Domaine Sunnen-Hoffmann to learn the science behind growing grapes organically. Younger classes walk the vineyards and discuss why grapes can be grown so well in the Moselle Valley region and not in the northern Ardennes; they ponder what makes wine red or white, and they conduct blind taste tests of grape juice to determine whether they can detect hints of lemon, apple, or other familiar flavors before finally getting their creative juices flowing by designing their very own wine label.

Older students also have a chance to learn at the winery, with opportunities for students aged 15 and older to delve into the chemistry of winemaking, the specificities around organic farming and an in-depth look at advanced technologies employed to help wine reach its potential during the fermentation process.

The winery is also used as a demonstration farm for tours of agricultural professionals who want to learn about the way organic farming works in Luxembourg.

“With this organic teaching, we are able to show that all we are doing is connected,” said Yves.

It’s a Family Affair

Chat with Yves and Corinne for just a few minutes, and it’s clear that their business is just as much about their own roots as it is about those in their vineyards. The walls of their bottling and storage facility are lined with enlarged black and white photos of family members from the early 1900s who can be spotted walking the vineyards with a foreign customer, wandering the banks of a pre-canal Moselle River, or loading barrels of wine onto a barge ready to depart for British India.

“It is nice to have the tradition behind us, to be in the walls where our family has lived and worked,” Corinne reflected on a tour of her grandparents’ former home. A stone’s throw down the street from the wine cave, their grandparents’ home was converted last year into a store managed largely by Yves’ wife, Chantal Sunnen. Open from Thursday to Saturday, the store sells the family’s own wine and organic wine imported from other countries, in addition to a hand-picked selection of organic foods, glassware and serving dishes, linens, and a collection of books for both children and adults.

Family at Sunnen-Hoffman extends into the vineyard. Their vineyard manager has been with the family for 25 years: so long that working together is so natural it’s nearly on auto-pilot. Their dozen hard-working pickers hired back each year during the harvest are mainly retirees in their late 50s and 60s. They drive from their homes in neighboring France each day to do the harvest by hand and look forward to the exercise and fresh air; many also return to the winery during the year as customers.

At Sunnen-Hoffmann, everyone in the family plays a critical role in moving the wine from the field to the table. While Yves focuses on the wine and Chantal focuses on the store, Corinne focuses on the day-to-day business administration. When asked if she ever feels an impulse to question her brother’s judgment when it comes to making the wine, Corinne laughs and says that she would never tell him how to do his job. Yves claims that it works the other way around, too: “I don’t understand anything with computers. You need the two parts to be successful.”

Growing Better, Not Bigger

Peering into the winery’s future, Yves and Corinne look to grow the winery in inventiveness and quality, not necessarily quantity. Yves is animated when he discusses two new naturally disease resistant varietals recently introduced to his fields: cabernet blanc, a grape that tastes like sauvignon blanc, and pinotin, from which they will produce red wines.

“From a size perspective, we are where we wanted to be ten years ago. We have 8.1 hectares now, but when we reach 9.5 eventually, that will be the limit,” says Yves.

And are there awards that the winery has not yet been given that he would like to see in the future? No. Yves is happy with the recognition they already receive. “To receive three coups de cœur from the Guide Hachette in the last ten years is very big for us as an organic winery,” he explains.

With a nod to his loyal customers, he adds: “The most important contest is the wine tasting of the customers. As a private producer, it is important for people here – our neighbors – to like our wines.”

Domaine Sunnen-Hoffmann will hold its annual wine tasting open house, Journées de Dégustation d’Octobre, on October 21, 22 and 23 from 2pm-8pm each day. Visitors are invited to taste and purchase newly released wines and to explore their store. The winery is located at 6, rue de Prés in Remerschen.