Alsace wines making well-deserved comeback
This week's column features a wine region that specializes in producing some of the most elegant and food-friendly white wines available — the beautiful French region of Alsace.
Alsace
White wines in general, like the ones of Alsace, seem to have lost their appeal in past years, but lately we are seeing an increase in a consumption of whites, including the ones of Alsace. This French region, located in the north-west part of France, close to German borders, has quite a unique history. Actually, many people don't know that this French region belong to Germany from 1870 to 1919. This situation greatly affected the local culture and wine making practices. For various reasons, some wine drinkers tend to confuse the wines of Germany and Alsace at times — this could be explained by the choice of grapes and bottle shapes used in both regions. The long narrow flute-shaped bottles used in Germany and Alsace can confuse the consumers. As a wine expert, I must stress the fact that some similarities might exist, but the actual wines in the bottles are quite different. The wines of Alsace are usually richer, dryer and have a higher percentage of alcohol than the ones from Germany. Although some beautiful sweet dessert wines are also made in Alsace from late harvested grapes, there are about 50 Grand Cru in Alsace, the wines from these great vineyards are the best and most complex wines from the region (at times also the richest).
The grapes
Alsace was the first French wine region to allow wine producers to state the name of the grape on the label. As mentioned before, the Alsace specialty is white wines, so their focus is on various white grapes. The most popular ones are Muscat, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Sylvaner. They also make a little bit of red wine from Pinot Noir, and sparkling wines from the various white grapes called Cremant d'Alsace.
Most wines are made from one grape, but most producers also make a wine that is a blend of the different white grapes — this is called ‘'Edelzwicker.'' Each producer has their own recipe and their own proprietary name for the wine (ex: Pierre Sparr Alsace One).
The wines of Alsace are generally aromatic, have lots of flavours, have a rich mouth feel and are quite elegant. The lighter wines of the region are the ones made from Pinot Blanc and Sylvaner. For the red, the Pinot Noir made in this region tends to be quite light-bodied. The Riesling, the Pinot Gris and the Gewurztraminer from Alsace are wines that can provide you some very special wine tasting experiences when well made.
Food and wine
Aromatic and exotic wines like Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Muscat are great partners for spicy food and ethnic food like Asian cuisine, Indian or Mexican. The late harvest wines (dessert wines) are quite good with strawberry dessert (Gewurztraminer), citrus flavour dessert or with Foie Gras de Canard. Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Pinot Gris and Riesling can be enjoyed on their own or with seafood, poultry, pork and cheese fondue.
At ANBL
Unfortunately, with white wines losing some ground on the wine scene, the selection of wines from Alsace suffered. Another important factor is that people tend to spend less on white wines than red, and the whites of Alsace are mostly from $15-$30. These two factors affected the sales and demand for these great whites. On the positive side, the number of listings from this region has increased over the years and they seem to sell well, so since it's all about the demand versus the offer, I'm sure will see more wines from Alsace on our shelf in the future.
Weekly wine picks:
• No. 3328771004209 — Gustave Lorentz Reserve Riesling —France-Alsace ($24.48)
• No. 3263530020017 — Pierre Sparr Alsace One — France — Alsace ($17.29)
• No. 831906004812 — Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Grand Cru-France-Alsace ($40.79)
• No. 3760090040153 — Schoepfer Pinot Gris France —Alsace ($23.49)
Robert Noël is ANBL's official Sommelier, is certified by The Court of Master Sommelier and the International Sommelier Guild. He loves sharing his passion about food and wine.