If you’re looking for a fantastic Luxembourgish red or you love Riseling, Domaine Viticole Kohll- Leuck is a must try!
Nestled away on a tiny road in Ehnen you will find the fantastic Kohll-Leuck winery. At the beginning of the year, I was lucky enough to get a private tour and tasting from Claude Scheuren, one of the many family members working hard to make this winery the success that it is.
Kohll-Leuck is a family estate in the fourth generation of the Kohll family; it’s carried the name Kohll-Leuck since the 1970s when Mr Kohll and Madame Leuck took over the business. Their son Luc is the estate’s vintner and Claude, their son-in-law, works extremely hard at knowing the Domaine’s customers and keeping them happy. I could see immediately that this winery runs like a well-oiled machine.
The Domaine has grown from 6 hectares in the 1970s to approximately 15 hectares today. Over the years, this family has developed a philosophy that the story of a wine starts in the vineyard; because of this, they invest a lot of time and energy into ensuring that the land and grapes are of the utmost quality. You can clearly see that there’s been a shift in focus from quantity to quality by the simple fact that they produce less wine today with 15 hectares than they did in the 1970s with a third of the land.
In addition to its normal range of wines, Kohll-Leuck also produce bottles under the Charta label, a quality label awarded by Luxembourg’s independent wine producers. The label debuted in 2007, with Kohll-Leuck being one of the founding members. Bottles carrying the name have been under strict control from the very beginning of the wine-making process, and have passed a blind tasting of both the independent producers themselves and outside specialists.
During my visit, I was able to taste a large range of their wines, but I didn’t even come close to tasting them all. Kohll-Leuck has a massive wine list with the hopes that everyone will be able to find something they like. There were a few things about this domaine and its wine that I particularly enjoyed: the first being their recognition of the changing population, and therefore the varied tastes of the market. The second being their understanding that wine needs time to reach it’s full potential. One of the most frustrating things about Luxembourg’s wine selection is that most of the bottles you find are 1-2 years old (maximum). Of course this is often a reflection of the small quantity of bottles produced by each vinter, but it’s also the culture of Luxembourg. Kohll-Leuck has made a conscious decision to be different, and therefore always keeps a portion of its production behind to be sold later on after significant ageing. I was offered a glass of their 2012 Pinot Noir and the depth of its colour and its full-body blew my mind. This wine is the perfect example of what can happen when you let a wine age. It’s the Luxembourgish red I’ve been searching for. If you love red too, please give this a try!
On average Kohll-Leuck produces 100,000 bottles a year with crémant totalling a quarter of the production. A whopping 95% of their wines are sold directly to private customers, which means it’s quite hard to find these bottles anywhere except at the Domaine. Claude says the family likes to know its customers so selling direct to the customer is an essential part of their business.
If you’re searching for a Luxembourgish red or want to try something different, I would highly recommend paying Kohll-Leuck a visit. Call ahead for a tasting or just stop by and buy a mixed box of bottles; it would be hard to be disappointed.
Other suggestions include:
Riesling 1947- Wousselt- Less Terrasses 2015
Charta Luxembourg, Reisling Kelterberg 2014 or Wousselt 2012
4, an der Borreg
L-5419 Ehnen
+352 76 02 42