WineRegionsOld WorldFranceOther French RegionsAlsace
The Wines of Alsace
Perhaps nowhere in the world are the production of wine and the creationof cuisine, so well matched. To attempt to understand the wines of theAlsace without an understanding of the cuisine, would be as bad as eatingthe food without the wine. The simple definition of Alsations wines isthey take the lush, floral, German varietals and vinefy them dry, not sweet. The simple definition of Alsations food is they take hearty German ingrediantsand prepare them with French artistic techniques. Foie gras is served wholenot just as a pate´. Sauerkraut becomes choucroute, and delicious.Dishes which look as though they are going to be heavy turn out to be richbut 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 tothe wine of any kind. They keep it undisturbed in huge wooden casks, rackingand filtering as little as possible. They even take precautions to fillthe bottle as full as possible and to use a specially long cork-all to protectthe wine from the air. They achieve a remarkable balance of strength andfreshness, fruit and acidity.
Alsatians consider the Riesling their true Grand Vin. It offers somethingmuch more elusive; a balance of hard and gentle, flowery and strong. ThoughAlsations don't consider Gewurztraminer as grand as their Reislings, itis the varietal most identified with the Alsace. You would not think thatso fruity a scent could come from any wine so clean and dry. Gewurz meansspice in German; the spice is there all the way down, and stays on yourpalate for two or three minutes after you have swallowed. To the initiateda wine with so marked a character becomes dull after a while. It has itsplace with some of the richest of the very rich Alsatian dishes, goose orpork. Reisling, Gewurztraminer and two less generally known varietals, PinotGris (Tokay d'Alsace) and the Muscat, are classed as the NobleWines of Alsace. Recently there has been renewed interest in the Tokay d'Alsace(no connection with Hungarian 'Tokay'), which makes the fullest bodied butleast perfumed wine of the region. Muscat surprises everyone who knowsthe 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 reckonednoble, comes the Sylvaner. Alsace Sylvaner is light and sometimesnicely tart. Without the tartness it can be a little dull and coarse inflavor. It is often used as the first wine at an Alsatian dinner, to buildup to the wine which will build up to the main wine, the Riesling.
The lesser grapes, the Chasselas and the Knipperle (thereare others, too), are not usually identified on the bottle, or indeed veryoften bottled at all. They are the open wines of cafes and restaurants.Very young, particularly in the summer after a good vintage, they are sogood that visitors should not miss them by insisting on bottled wine. Zwickeris 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 resistdoing 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 Ausleseand Beerenauslese, although the phrase Vendange Tardive is more in keepingwith Alsatian feelings. They reach heights of lusciousness not far removedfrom the rarest and most expensive of all German wines. A late-picked Gewurztramineror Muscat has perhaps the most exotic smell of any wine in the world, andcan 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 bottleof Alsace wine means that it is 11%, alcohol-a shade more than most fineGerman wines and the same as a good white burgundy. These are the best standardwines which most growers or negociants market.
RED AND ROSE´
A little red wine is made from the Pinot Noir but it rarely gets a deepercolor than a rose and never a very marked or distinguished flavor. Rouged'Alsace, and sometimes vin gris, or very pale pink wine, willbe 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 AuxArmes 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) isone of the dishes worth travelling for. In general, Alsace cooking demonstrateswhat a French artist can do with German ideas.