WineRegionsOld WorldFranceOther French RegionsAlsace
The Wines of Alsace
Perhaps nowhere in the world are the production of wine and the creation
of cuisine, so well matched. To attempt to understand the wines of the
Alsace without an understanding of the cuisine, would be as bad as eating
the food without the wine. The simple definition of Alsations wines is
they take the lush, floral, German varietals and vinefy them dry, not sweet.
The simple definition of Alsations food is they take hearty German ingrediants
and prepare them with French artistic techniques. Foie gras is served whole
not just as a pate´. Sauerkraut becomes choucroute, and delicious.
Dishes which look as though they are going to be heavy turn out to be rich
but light. Quiches and onion tart are pungent, fluffy and heavy. In Alsace,
no one looks beyond the local white wines to accompany the local cuisine.
The Alsatian style of wine making is almost fanatically concerned with naturalness.
They scorn refinements of fining, or anything which involves additions to
the wine of any kind. They keep it undisturbed in huge wooden casks, racking
and filtering as little as possible. They even take precautions to fill
the bottle as full as possible and to use a specially long cork-all to protect
the wine from the air. They achieve a remarkable balance of strength and
freshness, fruit and acidity.
Alsatians consider the Riesling their true Grand Vin. It offers something
much more elusive; a balance of hard and gentle, flowery and strong. Though
Alsations don't consider Gewurztraminer as grand as their Reislings, it
is the varietal most identified with the Alsace. You would not think that
so fruity a scent could come from any wine so clean and dry. Gewurz means
spice in German; the spice is there all the way down, and stays on your
palate for two or three minutes after you have swallowed. To the initiated
a wine with so marked a character becomes dull after a while. It has its
place with some of the richest of the very rich Alsatian dishes, goose or
pork. Reisling, Gewurztraminer and two less generally known varietals, Pinot
Gris (Tokay d'Alsace) and the Muscat, are classed as the Noble
Wines of Alsace. Recently there has been renewed interest in the Tokay d'Alsace
(no connection with Hungarian 'Tokay'), which makes the fullest bodied but
least perfumed wine of the region. Muscat surprises everyone who knows
the wine. Muscat wines anywhere else in the world are almost always sweet.
Here it keeps all its characteristic grapy scent but makes a dry "clean"
wine, a very good aperitif.
In a class above the common wines of the region, but not quite reckoned
noble, comes the Sylvaner. Alsace Sylvaner is light and sometimes
nicely tart. Without the tartness it can be a little dull and coarse in
flavor. It is often used as the first wine at an Alsatian dinner, to build
up to the wine which will build up to the main wine, the Riesling.
The lesser grapes, the Chasselas and the Knipperle (there
are others, too), are not usually identified on the bottle, or indeed very
often bottled at all. They are the open wines of cafes and restaurants.
Very young, particularly in the summer after a good vintage, they are so
good that visitors should not miss them by insisting on bottled wine. Zwicker
is the word used for a blend of the commoner grapes, Edelzwicker
(Edel means noble) for a blend made from the grander grape varieties.
None the less when a really fine autumn comes on the heels of a good summer,
and they find grapes ripening beautifully with no threat of bad weather,
not even an Alsatian, dedicated as he is to clean dry table wines, can resist
doing as the Germans do and getting the last drop of sugar out of his vines.
These late-pickings are even sometimes labeled with the German words Auslese
and Beerenauslese, although the phrase Vendange Tardive is more in keeping
with Alsatian feelings. They reach heights of lusciousness not far removed
from the rarest and most expensive of all German wines. A late-picked Gewurztraminer
or Muscat has perhaps the most exotic smell of any wine in the world, and
can at the same time keep a remarkable cleanness and finesse of flavor.
At less exalted levels, the words Grand Vin or Reserve Exceptionnelle,
or any combination with the words Grand or Reserve, appearing on a bottle
of Alsace wine means that it is 11%, alcohol-a shade more than most fine
German wines and the same as a good white burgundy. These are the best standard
wines which most growers or negociants market.
RED AND ROSE´
A little red wine is made from the Pinot Noir but it rarely gets a deeper
color than a rose and never a very marked or distinguished flavor. Rouge
d'Alsace, and sometimes vin gris, or very pale pink wine, will
be found in brasseries (the word for a restaurant serving Alsatian food,
traditionally to go with beer) in Paris and elsewhere.
Alsace itself has two of the best restaurants in France: Gaertner's Aux
Armes de France at Ammerschwihr and Haeberlin's Auberge de l' III at Illhaeusern.
Foie gras frais (whole goose liver, as opposed to pate de foie gras) is
one of the dishes worth travelling for. In general, Alsace cooking demonstrates
what a French artist can do with German ideas.