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Ruhlmann Cuvée Jean-Charles Riesling, Alsace 2018
WhiteFrance2018
By Daniel Min · Tasted 2019-11-16 · Published 2026-09-09 · Updated 2026-09-09
At a glance
In one line
4.0/5 — higher than Vivino's 3.5 average · world avg price US$18 · The entry-level Riesling from Ruhlmann-Schutz in Alsace.
No critic rating listed on Vivino. Wine Enthusiast's buying guide has entries for the 2013 and 2018 of this cuvée, but the pages are blocked and the scores could not be verified. No score for this cuvée was found at James Suckling, Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate or Decanter.
Market note: The estate's Alsace Riesling ladder runs Cuvée Jean-Charles €10.80 < Granit S and old-vine Blettig €13 < old-vine Hospices de Strasbourg €14 < Grand Cru Frankstein and Muenchberg €19 (estate webshop, Sept 2026). With 532 ratings, 2018 is by far the most-rated of the label's 40 vintages on Vivino.
Father's note — Daniel Min
Original author of the notes“Mineral, Fruity, a refreshing tangy lemon favour, pineapple, dry tropical, balanced.”
What I learned today: there's more than one way to keep someone — you can put their name on a bottle, or copy them down, typos and all.
Fridays are the bar's busiest night. By eight every seat was taken, and I refilled the ice bucket three times. My hands were so cold I tucked them into my sleeves, then took the chilled glass Master Seo held out.
Lemon zinged. Pineapple, a stony minerality. My fingertips on the glass were so cold my shoulders rose to my ears on their own.
Those cold fingertips opened the drawer. Late autumn when I was twenty-one, a Saturday afternoon cleared bright after rain. The sun came in low across the table. The bottle Father took from the fridge was beaded with water, and he wrapped it in cloth, stood it up, and pressed a cold glass into my hand. When I said my hand was freezing, he said, "That's the right temperature." I don't know the bottle's name.
At eleven, when things quieted down, Master Seo told me the story behind the name. Cuvée Jean-Charles. It's the name of the father of the son who runs the domaine now. The father left suddenly, and the son carried on. I touched the grape pin on my left chest once.
The notebook is one line. In the line with "a refreshing tangy lemon favour," Father typed favour for flavour. I copied it over without fixing the typo. What I learned today: there's more than one way to keep someone — you can put their name on a bottle, or copy them down, typos and all.
What this wine is
Alsace is close to the only French region that puts the grape variety, rather than the village, in large type on the label. Four varieties are called noble here — Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat — and in principle only those four may be planted in the grand cru sites, of which there are now 51, a list begun in 1975. Riesling in particular took a different road from Germany, just across the Rhine. While Germany built its name on sweet Rieslings with sugar left in the bottle, Alsace made fermenting the wine out to dryness the standard. That is why this bottle does not need to say 'sec' anywhere on it.
Dambach-la-Ville is a walled town roughly halfway between Strasbourg and Colmar, and the four hillsides around it make up the grand cru Frankstein — some 56 hectares between 220 and 330 metres, on a granite base of quartz, mica and feldspar under shallow, stony, sandy soil. The Ruhlmann-Schutz family's 40 hectares are scattered across this village and four neighbouring communes between 175 and 420 metres, taking in two grands crus and a number of named lieux-dits.
Cuvée Jean-Charles is a person's name. Jean-Charles Ruhlmann was Marthe Ruhlmann's husband and the father of André, who runs the estate today; he died suddenly in 1993. His son took over, and the following year, in 1994, the Domaine Ruhlmann-Schutz was formally born. The wine itself belongs to the estate's 'Symphonie des Cépages' varietal range and is its entry tier: hand-picked grapes, whole bunches into a pneumatic press, traditional fermentation under temperature control. The producer describes the site as sandy granite low in humus, with vines of moderate rooting depth. Alcohol 12.5%, serve at 8–10°C, keep up to five years. As for 2018, Alsace baked along with the rest of Europe: no frost damage, a very generous crop, dry whites rated highly — and, alongside all that, the recurring note that the heat left Riesling with softer acidity than usual.
What the world says
There is no critic score. I could confirm that Wine Enthusiast's buying guide holds entries for the 2013 and the 2018 of this cuvée, but the pages are blocked and I could not read the numbers, and no major publication's score for this label turned up anywhere else. For an entry cuvée at just over ten euros, that is ordinary.
The community fills the gap instead. The 2018 averages 3.5 on Vivino from 532 people, and the shape of that is unusual: 317 of them — 60% — gave exactly 3, while 175 (33%) went to 4 or above and only 40 went to 2 or below. Few enthusiasts, few detractors, almost everyone parked at 'fine'. Across all 40 vintages the label averages 3.5 from 1,866 ratings, swinging between 3.4 (2013) and 3.7 (2011, 2016, 2021). The 2018 sits mid-pack at 3.5, but its 532 ratings dwarf every other year — this was the vintage that travelled furthest.
The aroma keywords lead with citrus, 67 mentions (citrus 26, lemon 16, grapefruit 13, lime 8), then earth and minerals at 59 (minerals 23, honey 19, stone 6, petroleum 3), pear and green apple at 48, pineapple and 'tropical' at 17. Structure reads acidity 4.4 out of 5, intensity only 2.9. Jancis Robinson's Alsace vintage note says the 2018 Rieslings were 'perhaps less classic, thanks to the softer acidities resulting from the heat' — which points the other way from the crowd's 4.4.
"A delightful creamy, acidic Riesling with notes of zesty lemon that combined perfectly with some spicy Indian food." — Vivino review, Jul 2020, 3.5 stars
"Hint of mineral taste but very light. Would buy again." — Vivino review, Feb 2021, 3.5 stars
"Light and fresh." — Vivino review, Jun 2021, 3.5 stars (the most-liked review of its year)
How I drank it
November 16, 2019, 4 stars. The note is a single line: "Mineral, Fruity, a refreshing tangy lemon favour, pineapple, dry tropical, balanced." — typo for 'flavour' and all. It is the only wine I logged that day, which stands out against the sixteen bottles I had rattled off three days before.
Five of the six words I listed land squarely on the community's top keywords: mineral (23 mentions), lemon (16), pineapple (9), tropical (5), and dry. The tropical family is a minority report over there — 17 mentions in total — yet my note carries both pineapple and tropical. On acidity I wrote 'refreshing tangy', and the last word I wrote was 'balanced'.
Four stars puts me 0.5 above the community's 3.5. Three days earlier I gave the same estate's crémant rosé a 3 against a community average of 3.9, which put me 0.9 below. Two bottles from one house, and my gap to the crowd flipped from −0.9 to +0.5 — a swing of 1.4. I read that as scoring the bottles rather than the name on them. The note lengths point the same way: two words for the crémant ("Delicious cremant."), six aroma words for this Riesling.
Set against my other Alsace and German Riesling entries from those years, 4 sits near the top of my range. The Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2017 from Washington, drunk three days earlier, also got a 4; the Mosel and Nahe Rieslings that followed spread from 3 to 4.5. There is no re-tasting of this Cuvée Jean-Charles on record.
Vivino community data
2018 vintage rating distribution (532 ratings, average 3.5)
| 5★ | 22 (4%) | |
| 4★ | 153 (29%) | |
| 3★ | 317 (60%) | |
| 2★ | 34 (6%) | |
| 1★ | 6 (1%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Citrus | 67 | citrus 26 · lemon 16 · grapefruit 13 · lime 8 · lemon zest 2 |
| Earth & minerals | 59 | minerals 23 · honey 19 · stone 6 · petroleum 3 |
| Tree fruit | 48 | pear 19 · green apple 14 · apple 6 · peach 4 · melon 2 |
| Tropical fruit | 17 | pineapple 9 · tropical 5 · lychee 2 · kiwi 1 |
| Ferment & dairy | 5 | cheese 2 · banana 1 · cream 1 · oil 1 |
| Floral | 4 | acacia · apple blossom · honeysuckle · jasmine, 1 each |
Structure: Acidity 4.4/5 · Intensity 2.9/5 · Sweetness 2.4/5
Average by vintage (all vintages: 1866 ratings, average 3.5)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 3.7 | 36 |
| 2012 | 3.6 | 45 |
| 2013 | 3.4 | 56 |
| 2014 | 3.5 | 91 |
| 2015 | 3.6 | 144 |
| 2016 | 3.7 | 145 |
| 2017 | 3.5 | 161 |
| 2018 | 3.5 | 532 |
| 2019 | 3.6 | 122 |
| 2020 | 3.5 | 235 |
| 2021 | 3.7 | 60 |
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→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Ruhlmann Cuvée Jean-Charles Riesling?
A dry white from the Ruhlmann-Schutz family estate in Dambach-la-Ville, Alsace. 100% Riesling at 12.5% alcohol, hand-harvested from sandy granite soils, whole-bunch pressed and fermented under temperature control. It is the entry tier of the estate's 'Symphonie des Cépages' varietal range — a brisk, high-acid style of citrus, minerals, pear and pineapple. Vivino 3.5 (532 ratings for the 2018).
How much does it cost?
€10.80 direct from the estate (2025 vintage, September 2026). A French online merchant lists the 2024 at €12.00, and an Australian retailer sold the 2018 at A$30.99 against an A$46 RRP (now sold out). The Wine-Searcher world average is US$18 per 750ml ex-tax (Sept 2026), with an aggregate critic score of 89/100 from two reviews.
What food goes with it?
Vivino's users pair it with pork, vegetarian dishes, rich fish such as salmon and tuna, spicy food and cured meat. The producer suggests fish and shellfish, Alsatian classics like choucroute, baeckeoffe and coq au vin, and white meats. Serve at 8–10°C; the drinking window is 2021–2028.
Who was Jean-Charles?
Jean-Charles Ruhlmann was the third-generation head of the family — Marthe Ruhlmann's husband and the father of André, who runs the estate today. He died suddenly in 1993, his son took over, and the Domaine Ruhlmann-Schutz was formally founded the following year. A Crémant d'Alsace also carries his name, at €11.90.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data (2018: 3.5 from 532 ratings)
- Famille Ruhlmann-Schutz — Riesling Cuvée Jean-Charles product page (soil, vinification, €10.80)
- Famille Ruhlmann-Schutz — The Family / Our Vineyard in Alsace (Jean-Charles Ruhlmann, 40 ha, 175–420 m)
- L'Echo d'Alsace — 'Du vin de génération en génération' (Jean-Charles's death in 1993, estate founded 1994)
- Jancis Robinson — Alsace vintage chart, 2018 (heat softened Riesling acidity)
- iDealwine — 2018 vintage scores, north-eastern France (Alsace dry whites 17/20)
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