Thomas Schlumberger &
The Timeless Journey of Domaines Schlumberger
By W Peter Hoyne
Positioned in southern Alsace along the rising slopes of the Vosges Mountains are the terraced vineyards of Domaines Schlumberger. Within the city of Guebwiller is where this legacy begins with the wines of Domaines Schlumberger and Thomas Schlumberger, seventh-generation family member. The earliest history of grape growing in Alsace dates back to 58 BC when the Romans invaded the country planting their own vineyards along the steep slopes. Afterward, it was the Benedictine monks who directed the destiny of grape growing within Alsace.
In a discussion with Thomas Schlumberger, he explained the influence of the monks of the Prince Abbotts of Murbach who established the first historical records for the best vineyards or “grand cru” sites within Alsace. According to Thomas, “the monks played a very important role because during the Middle Ages until the 10th century, the monks used to be in control of the land. They were providing protection to the people in exchange for a fee. They used to take some bottles from each producer locally. As they became fairly rich, they got the title of prince. So what we call in our case the Prince Abbes used to be the monk in charge of the land at that time. It was a little bit unfair requesting a fee in exchange for protection, but at the same time, the monk was the only one with the ability to write. They had a very good perception of each wine from the best locations among the entire territory. For ten centuries the monks used to taste all the wine from their territory and started to rank them and take notes about them. This laid the groundwork for the grand cru classification in Alsace. Today, there are 51 classified grand cru vineyards in Alsace.
As Thomas recalls, “everything changed after the French Revolution in 1789 as the government took control of all the land from the monks. Now the private people, like our family had been able to buy the land from the government.” Schlumberger was able to use these writings by the monks and understand the location of the vineyards with the best terroirs.
In 1810, it was Nicolas Schlumberger who founded Domaines Schlumberger. He set up a textile factory in Guebwiller looking for a water source from the Vosges Mountains. He discovered a 50-acre parcel of vineyard which he purchased and expanded the cellars. It wasn’t until a century later in 1911 when his great-grandson, Ernest returned to the factory while energetically rebuilding and expanding the vineyards. Thomas explains that “Ernest came at a time which was very difficult in Alsace with the First World War plus the phylloxera crisis which destroyed the entire vineyard locally. So he was the one thinking he needed to save the vineyard in the valley and use the money from the textile industry and put it into the vineyard. Back then there were about 2,500 plots from different owners locally and we became at the time the largest independent winery in Alsace. In 1920, Ernest started to replant the vineyard horizontally, so he shaped the entire mountain in terraces. Still, nowadays, we have 35 miles of stone walls all over the place just to maintain the terraces and shape.”
Born and raised in the local village of Gubweiller, Thomas was the youngest in a family of four. His father Eric devoted his time to the vineyards starting in 1971, until his father’s brother Alian, Thomas's uncle, took charge in 2000. Alain succeeded in his ambitious efforts to modernize all the equipment at the winery.
Thomas remembers his youth, “we were never obliged to come back to the winery. My parents were very smart to let us choose what we were willing to do.” So, Nicholas decided to study abroad in the US for two years in Charleston, South Carolina.
He studied business administration, sales and marketing with a minor in Chemistry, “I was feeling that it could be useful in the future. No one in the family went to enology school. The idea for us was to really manage a team.
After returning to France, he accepted a position in the town of Grasse in the French Riviera, the world capital of perfume. Thomas would reside here for a few years, selling perfume before following in the footsteps of his father and continuing the Schlumberger legacy. As he saw it, “it’s funny nowadays to realize the similarities you can find between a perfume and a wine. It was a good school for me.”
In the meantime, his uncle, Alain had been in charge of the estate between 2000 and 2017. “The vineyard was in perfect shape. His role was to modernize all the tools in the cellars. When we took over, everything was in perfect order and perfect shape.” Thomas came back to Alsace when he turned 30 years old, in 2010. “First I took over the export manager role and now the CEO position since my uncle retired. Actually, my sister arrived at the same time, she was the face of the family promoting the wines around the world.” His sister Severine became co-owner of Domaines Schlumberger along with Thomas.
Today, Schlumberger owns 321 acres of vineyards which are the largest in Alsace along with one of the largest parcels of contiguous vineyards in France. They retain 70 acres of Grand Cru vineyards consisting of four distinguished sites, Kitterle, Kessler, Saerling and Spiegel. Some of these vineyards date back to ancient Roman history. “We are by far the largest producer of grand cru in the area and the magic is that we have those four locations on four different types of soil, but very close to each other. All the grand cru touch each other, but because of the geology you have different layers of soil which brings a lot of complexity to the wine.”
When I asked Thomas if there is a Schlumberger style, he responded “it's difficult to answer. Maybe, more like the terroir related to Schlumberger. We strongly believe in terroirs of course, because we have four different grand crus. The terroir speaks by itself in a way, the expression that you have in the wine is directly connected to the type of soil that you have in your vineyard…I guess more importantly than the site itself is the consistency. When you also put your name on the label you need to be 100% sure of the quality of the wine.”
I asked how he would describe the expression of Alsace Riesling. Thomas answered, “most of the wineries in Alsace, if we talk about Riesling of course, are producing dry Riesling, but unlike the German Riesling, we have a little bit more fruit character. So usually you get the feeling of riper fruit, grapefruit, citrusy notes and so on, but at the end it is very well balanced by the acidity. Generally speaking, we tend to say that ones from Alsace have a little bit less acidity which means that the perception of the fruit is more juice at the beginning with a very nice and clean finish at the end.
In our generation, of course, we put much more focus on the Riesling because this is what the winemaker loves. A dry Riesling full of minerality is something that you can’t find an expression of in any other grape that you use, anywhere in the world. So, the Riesling is really the king of grapes, something that shows many lavers of complexity.”
