20 Years of Le Temps des Cérises

On June 8th, Axel Prüfer and Ute Zwanzig celebrated two decades of innovative Haut Languedoc natural winemaking with a fabulous block party outside their cellar in La Tour-sur-Orb.

Axel Prüfer (center) with a mag of the collaborative wine he makes with his two longtime friends, Roussillon vignerons Loïc Roure (left) and Edouard Laffitte (right).

I first met Haut Languedoc vigneron Axel Prüfer in November 2010 in the context of the Amis Buvons tasting that Autour d’Un Verre proprietor Kevin Blackwell used to organize at his bistrot. Prüfer is a diminutive, exceptionally discreet east German émigré often surrounded, on such occasions, by larger and louder personalities, and whose wines are known, among other virtues, for their astonishing value. To my embarrassment, it took me most of the following decade to discern the wider significance of Prüfer’s work at Le Temps des Cérises, the estate he founded with his companion Ute Zwanzig in 2004.

Once it hits you, it hits you. I drink the couple’s wines more often than those of any other estate these days. So I made sure not to miss the recent 20th anniversary party in La Tour-sur-Orb.

Here are a few snapshots. The event was executed in true Prüfer style, which is to say with good taste and consummate expertise muffled in several layers of devil-may-care sprezzatura.