Bronze age artefacts and remains from the Roman period allow us to date the beginnings of Rorschwihr to well before the moment at which it first appears in written history under the name of « Chrodoldesvillare ».
Originally a dependency of a royal Merovingian demesne, the village and its vineyard were in the possession of a Frankish nobleman, Rantwig, in 742, before becoming a fief of the Lord’s domain of Ribeaupierre. In 1313, the Ribeaupierre family simultaneously ceded Rorschwihr and the town of Bergheim to the Hapsburgs, thus tying Rorschwihr’s destiny with that of this neighbouring town.
Several religious institutions, most notably the Abbey of Wissembourg, the monasteries of Ebersmünster and Moyenmoutier and the convent of Silo de Sélestat, owned vines at Rorschwihr during the Middle Ages and harvested Communion wine in the « Silberberg » and « Kugelberg » plots.
The French Revolution heralded change, with Rorschwihr becoming a parish in its own right in 1802.
The fate of the Château du Meyerhof (« the Manor House ») has always been inextricably linked to that of the village. In 742, a land deed (the first concerning the castle), transfers the property to a nobleman called Rantwig.
From the 12th century to the revolution, the castle was owned by the Abbey of Moyenmoutier (in Lorraine) and featured a ‘cour colongère’ (an area where tithes were gathered in), which also offered the right of asylum. Numerous documents recount how the ownership of this estate and its high quality vineyards passed from one famous nobleman or churchman to another. A whole succession of popes (Clement III, Callixtus II, Innocent II, Lucius III) and key figures in French history (Pepin the Short, Louis the Pious,…) allowed themselves the privilege of tasting these renowned wines.
Now the estate is privately owned, with the cultivation of its vineyards being taken on by the domaine FERNAND ENGEL in 2008.
