When you’re on a wine press trip, you can spend your day drinking a lot of the same style of wine, and scribble something down only when something truly stands out. In Alsace recently, however, I made notes on nearly every single wine I tasted.
The character, imagination and sheer variety of Alsace wine is undeniable, but I often feel that it’s a little under-loved in the UK compared with the other French regions. It’s a middle child, caught somewhere between the overachieving eldest (Bordeaux and Burgundy) and the exciting, trendy youngest (Auvergne and Corsica). It doesn’t help that 74% of the region’s total output is consumed in France itself.
Before we delve into the wines themselves, a short bottled history. As far back as the 2nd century, the area was identified for its favourable grape-growing conditions: low rainfall and steep, sunny slopes protected by the Vosges mountains. In the centuries that followed, the region’s “golden age”, Alsace rivalled Bordeaux in terms of wine-producing area and quantity. Then the Thirty Years’ War desolated the vineyards and the population – the commune of Bergheim, for example, plummeted from 2,600 inhabitants to just 20. The region was later twice annexed by the Germans, whose vision for its wine was based on only four varieties: riesling, muscat, pinot gris and gewürztraminer.
After the first world war, Alsace became French again, but lacked confidence, and went from being the largest German wine-growing region to the smallest French one. But in 1945 an AOC was established, giving it the ambition to reclaim its regional identity and rebuild its reputation. And rebuild it did. Today, there are 10 authorised grapes in AOC Alsace and, although its single-varietal wines are vastly different, they are united in their aromatic intrigue. There’s spicy, captivating gewürztraminer; the riesling shows citrus, flint and flowers; pinot blanc, the most widely planted grape, is all apple and peach; while pinot noir varies from concentrated and powerful to bright and fruity. Sweet wines are also made: vendages tardives using late-harvest grapes and sélection de grains nobles with grapes affected by noble rot.
You may already be more than familiar with the region’s flagship sparkling wine, crémant d’Alsace, which accounts for 33% of all production. Made using the same method as champagne, and often far cheaper, it’s mostly pinot blanc, although auxerrois, pinot gris and pinot noir are also allowed in the blend.
Oh, and the place itself is absolutely gorgeous. For those who care about anime as much as I do, I stayed in Colmar, whose gingerbread-house visages provided inspiration for Hayeo Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Walk the canals, eat the choucroute, and make sure you bring home some wine – we somehow need to get that 74% statistic down.
Four Alsace bottles to whet your palate
Kuehn Crémant d’Alsace Brut Cuvée Prestige £13.99 Virgin Wines, 11.5%. Like biting into a granny smith. Delicate, 100% pinot blanc with a subtle, toasty finish.
Trimbach Riesling £18 Tesco, 12.5%. I was genuinely excited to discover that a supermarket stocks this Alsace icon. A great introduction to a great winery.
Cave de Turckheim Pinot Blanc 2022 £8.95 The Wine Society, 13%. It’s can be tricky to find a good Alsace wine for less than a tenner. Pear, peach, well balanced.
Joseph Cattin Steinbach Rouge £25.75 Hourlier Wines, 13.5%. Steinbach is famous for its pinot noir, and this, dominated by fresh but brooding black cherry, was one of my favourites.
