History – The Genesis of Domaines van Aalderen
Text written by Daniel, a friend of the family
For as long as we can remember, the journey is part of who we are: we first travel with our parents, then with life itself. At the beginning, we meet people, we cross paths with crowds. Over time, we become more demanding about the quality of these encounters, of these exchanges, and one day our steps lead us to a place that looks unremarkable, plain, yet bucolic, almost romantic. This place has a soul, a charm that releases its scents sparingly, as if to protect itself, to preserve itself, to be better deserved. It was in this sheltered, slightly hidden place that honest, powerful terroirs developed – terroirs that a winemaker named Walter would come to celebrate. It was in Nizas that this winemaker one day came to a stop. In 1982, after brilliant secondary studies and while heading toward higher studies in chemistry in the Netherlands, the “young” Walter decided his life would take a different path, one marked by wine, and he left his “flat country” in search of winemaking adventures…
Chance led him to the heart of the Alsace vineyards, to Husseren (8 km SW of Colmar), where he found refuge within the house of Kuentz-Bas, century-old custodian of the know-how behind a great tradition of high-quality wines. For two years, as a simple farm labourer working 12 to 15 hours a day, he toiled, pressed, pruned, and learned the vine, the wine… and French. Sure of his path and armed with his new language, he studied oenology in Dijon from ’84 to ’88. There, our modern-day “Candide” met his “Cunégonde”, his charming wife Nadine, who would never leave him – just as he would never leave the cradle of French wine.
After five years of wandering that took him from California to Arles, by way of the hillsides of Aix and Cassis, he settled in Nizas in 1993, where a position as estate manager of a 75-hectare property awaited him. The terroir he discovered there resembled the garden he had always dreamed of “cultivating”. Alongside his work as estate manager, he acquired his first parcel of vines in ’93: 55 ares on a south-west-facing Villafranchien hillside planted with Cabernet – a warm terroir that bears the gentle name of Cisso, from which he created, in 1994, the first vintage of one of the nectars that today delights our palates and pleases our taste buds. In 1997, he decided to work for himself. His friendship with Michel, a winegrower from Nizas, gave him access to a century-old family cellar, which was then restored.
Today, Walter van Aalderen farms 4.5 hectares around Nizas.
In 2005, he planted 4.5 hectares of vines west of Gabian, at the place known as Bouboulès, on the edge of the “Faugères” appellation area. Until 2011, he worked his vines and raised his wine alone, like a devoted father, with love and passion.
Following in his father’s footsteps, his son Paul – after a Master’s in oenology from Montpellier and a first professional experience in New Zealand – is today at the helm of the Bouboulès estate, where he tends his vines and makes his wine in his own cellar. This is why there are now two van Aalderen estates.
Paul, a young winegrower-oenologist, follows the path laid out by his father and looks after the Bouboulès vines in particular, while Walter continues to craft his Cisso, Piffé and Gravas from the vines of Nizas.