Château de Kientzheim, Tailored to You
The Confrérie Saint-Étienne: Stepping into the Living History of Alsace Wines
Château de Kientzheim: Where Wine Becomes a Shared Experience
Set along the Alsace Wine Route, just a few kilometres from Colmar, the château’s stone walls, ivy-clad façades, elegant courtyard, historic cellars and park create a setting that is unmistakably Alsatian. Yet to see the Confrérie simply as a beautiful château would be to miss what truly makes it special.
What moves us most here are the people who bring it to life.
Men and women with a genuine passion for Alsace wines, their history and their terroirs, who open the doors of the château and take the time to share and preserve this unique heritage. At the Confrérie, wine is never simply tasted: every wine has a story to tell, rooted in its landscape, its vintage, the work of the winemakers and centuries of tradition.
It is this human connection that transforms a visit or a wine tasting into a truly meaningful encounter.
A Place with a Soul
Before even speaking about wine, it is worth taking the time to appreciate the château itself.
Built on the former ramparts of Kientzheim, this 16th-century residence was once home to General Lazare de Schwendi. The Confrérie Saint-Étienne has owned the château since 1973. Its architecture blends medieval and Renaissance influences, with an elegant courtyard, vaulted rooms, corner turrets, generous reception spaces and a tree-lined park.
Yet it is often the smallest details that stay with you.
- The coolness of the stone as you make your way down to the cellars.
- The ivy climbing across the façades.
- An old door opening onto another room.
- The contrast between the light of the garden and the subdued atmosphere of the wine library.
- Long tables laid for dinner.
- Glasses waiting for guests before a tasting.
The château is far removed from a setting recreated for passing visitors. It is steeped in the history of the Confrérie and remains a living venue, hosting the grand chapters of the Confrérie Saint-Étienne, tastings, ceremonies, gatherings and events celebrating the wines of Alsace.
It is precisely this sense of a place still alive with history that gives the château its unique character.
The People Who Bring the Confrérie to Life
In our view, one of the most meaningful ways to discover the Confrérie is in the company of one of its members.
For generations, the Confrérie has brought together passionate advocates of Alsace wines, united by a desire to preserve, celebrate and share this unique wine heritage. Its roots date back to the 14th century, when the leading citizens of Ammerschwihr would gather, among other things, to uphold the quality of the local wines. Re-established in 1947, the Confrérie continues this mission today, passing on its traditions and promoting the wines and vineyards of Alsace.
Here, traditions are not simply put on display.
They are kept alive by people.
A member of the Confrérie might bring a grape variety to life through the story of the village it comes from, explain why two neighbouring plots can produce profoundly different wines, or evoke the memory of a particular year in the vineyard through an old vintage.
And this is often the moment when the experience takes on another dimension.
One question leads to another. The tasting lingers on. Guests begin to share their impressions. Someone who thought they knew nothing about wine finds themselves drawn into the conversation. A seasoned wine enthusiast discovers a story they had never heard before.
Little by little, the distance between the person sharing their knowledge and the person listening begins to fade.
The encounter becomes the experience.
An Exceptional Wine Library, a Living Memory of Alsace
Then comes one of the moments we particularly enjoy sharing with our guests: the Confrérie’s wine library.
More than 60,000 bottles of Alsace wine are preserved here, some dating back to 1834. Lined up in the château’s cellars, sometimes covered in dust and bearing the marks of time, they tell the story of nearly two centuries of winemaking in Alsace.
This is far more than an impressive collection. It is a living memory.
A memory of generous harvests and difficult years. Of generations succeeding one another at family estates. Of a vineyard landscape constantly evolving. And above all, of the remarkable ability of some of Alsace’s finest wines to endure through the decades.
Stepping down into this wine library adds an entirely new dimension to the tasting that comes before it.
Once you realise that, just a few metres away, bottles are resting that predate several generations of winemakers, you no longer look at your glass of Riesling in quite the same way.
Experiencing Alsace Wines Differently
Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Crémant d’Alsace… a tasting naturally offers the opportunity to explore the great expressions of the region’s vineyards.
But at the Confrérie, we prefer to move away from an overly formal or academic approach to wine tasting. Much of the pleasure lies in everything that happens around the glass.
Taking in the colour. Identifying an aroma without worrying about getting it wrong. Listening to the story of a terroir. Comparing impressions with the person beside you. Understanding why a wine has evolved in a certain way. Sometimes discovering an older vintage and experiencing first-hand what time has brought to the wine.
Depending on the project, we can arrange an exclusive tasting led by a member of the Confrérie, an introduction to the Confrérie’s officially approved wines, a workshop exploring aromas and terroirs, or a dedicated experience centred around older vintages.
For some experiences, the Confrérie’s own ceremonial traditions can also become part of the moment.
Traditional attire, rituals, the sound of hunting horns: within moments, the atmosphere shifts. Guests realise they are no longer simply visiting a wine estate, but stepping into an institution with its own distinctive codes and traditions.
And none of it feels staged. Here, every element is genuinely rooted in the history of the place.
When the Château Becomes the Stage for Your Event
We have known the Confrérie Saint-Étienne for many years and have built a close, long-standing partnership with them.
Above all, this relationship allows us to see Château de Kientzheim as far more than a venue to be booked for a few hours. Instead, we focus on how to bring the château to life for each individual group.
- For an executive team, this might take the form of a private tasting followed by dinner in one of the château’s reception rooms.
- For an international incentive group, arriving in the courtyard can become a genuine surprise after a day spent exploring the vineyards: a warm welcome, a first glass, an introduction to the château, followed by a wine experience before dinner.
- For a client reception, we can create a seamless flow between the different spaces: an aperitif in the garden when the season allows, a visit to the wine library, a tasting, then dinner.
- For a more festive corporate evening, the château can gradually shift in rhythm as the evening unfolds, with carefully selected musical or artistic entertainment designed to complement the setting rather than overpower it.
Château de Kientzheim offers a variety of distinctive atmospheres: the garden, the cellars, the wine cellar, the Dreyer Room with its more distinctly Alsatian character, the Schwendi Room for larger-scale receptions, and the Chapter Room for more intimate formats.
This variety makes it possible to create a true sense of progression throughout the event, rather than keeping guests in a single space from beginning to end.
Building an Entire Day Around the Vineyards
The Confrérie also takes on its full meaning when it becomes the culmination of a day designed as a journey, after exploring the Alsace Wine Route.
- In vintage 2CVs, taking the time to wind through authentic villages and admire the hillside vineyards.
- By bicycle, the experience takes on a different rhythm. Leaving the main roads behind, guests follow smaller lanes between the vineyard plots. The landscape reveals itself more slowly: rows of vines, the contours of the Vosges mountains, a church spire appearing between two hillsides. A stop with a winemaker or in a village then gives names, stories and faces to the vineyards you have been travelling through.
- On foot, a guided walk through the vineyards offers the chance to notice details that often go unseen from a car: the composition of the soils, the exposure of a particular plot, dry-stone walls, and the plants growing between the rows of vines. We particularly like to include a gourmet pause, simply set up in the heart of the landscape, creating a moment to connect and exchange before continuing the walk.
And after seeing the vineyards, meeting the people who shape them and tasting what they produce, arriving at the Confrérie at the end of the day feels entirely natural.
The château is no longer just another stop along the way.
It becomes the culmination of the story the guests have just experienced.
Creating an Evening in Harmony with the Setting
Our role often begins where simply booking a venue ends.
- What guest journey will create the strongest sense of arrival?
- Should the experience begin in the garden, or lead straight down into the cellars?
- Which member of the Confrérie is best suited to guide the tasting?
- Which wines should be served, and at what point in the evening?
- How should dinner be woven into the discovery of the château?
- Which form of entertainment will genuinely enhance the experience, rather than draw attention away from the setting?
These are the details that can completely transform the way an event is experienced.
At times, we would rather create something very simple: a few glasses of wine, a member of the Confrérie sharing a story, and a small group listening in a centuries-old cellar, rather than filling the evening with a succession of overly demonstrative activities.
Because Château de Kientzheim already possesses what we so often seek when designing an event in Alsace: a strong sense of identity.
The key is simply knowing how to reveal it.
Magnific Escapades & the Confrérie Saint-Étienne: A Relationship Built Over Time
When we design a stay or an event for our clients, we look for partners who share our approach to hospitality: thoughtful, generous and genuine. Our long-standing relationship with the Confrérie Saint-Étienne is fully aligned with this philosophy.
We know the château, its different atmospheres and the experiences that can be created within it. More importantly, we know the people who bring it to life and understand who to involve when shaping an experience that genuinely reflects the profile and expectations of each group.
This in-depth knowledge allows us to move beyond a standardised approach.
- A private tasting can become a meaningful encounter.
- A visit to the cellars can become a journey through two centuries of winemaking heritage.
- A dinner can become the final chapter of a day spent exploring the vineyards.
This is how we design experiences at Magnific Escapades: the setting provides the backdrop, the people give it soul, and together they tell a coherent story.
Taking a Piece of Alsace Home with You
When the château doors close at the end of the evening, guests remember far more than the wines they tasted.
- A stone staircase.
- An old bottle glimpsed in the wine library.
- A conversation with a member of the Confrérie.
- The sound of hunting horns echoing through the courtyard.
- A dinner shared within walls steeped in history.
And perhaps, above all, the feeling that for a few hours they were invited into a side of Alsace that is not usually so easy to access.
That is exactly what we seek to create for our clients.
Not simply to show them the destination, but to give them the opportunity to truly experience it.