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juniorformulamotorsport · 5 years

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Thursday, 19th September 2019 – Voegtlinshoffen, Colmar

Voegtlinshoffen is a tiny village which is not one of the half-timbered confections that so many Alsace villages are, because most of those were destroyed in the course of the Thirty Years’ War and rebuilt afterwards in a more simple style. What is does have is a site that provides stunning views across the Rhine and beyond to the Black Forest and, on clear days, the Alps. What is does have are some excellent wines, including the Hatchbourg grand cru, and it was that which brought us to the village on another gloriously sunny day.

We’d begun with a delicious breakfast (including a glass of crémant) at the Hostellerie le Marechal, and then checked the car to see if anything had fallen off after our encounter with the ironwork the day before (nothing seemed to have done, but there was a rattle that suggested the exhaust system might have been compromised) so we undertook the 15 minute drive to Voegtlinshoffen and the cellar visit organised by the hotel for us.

We were going to see a specialist in the crémant on offer at breakfast, Joseph Cattin, where the family have been making wine since 1720. It all started with François Cattin, who was Swiss, and who settled in the village where he was also a builder. They are 11 generations in now and still going strong as one of the largest family owned vineyards in Alsace.

In 1850 they shifted to wine making exclusively, with Joseph taking over the family-owned Estate just as phylloxera hit at the end of the 19th century. Joseph dedicated his time to finding was to fight this plague, becoming a pioneer of Alsacien viticulture. Meanwhile his brother headed off to Paris and set up a restaurant called La Cigogne (the Stork) which served Alsacien gastronomy to well heeled Parisians and foreign guests, acting as a shop front for the wines his brother was making.

Almost a century later the 10th generation modernised the estate and started worldwide exports of their products. It’s now being run by Jacques Cattin Junior, who has been in charge of winemaking since 2007, and his wife Anaïs, who runs the international sales department. What they now have is a fantastic range of wines, and a modern winery that includes a rooftop bar where you can try the wines alongside plates of charcuterie and cheeses. We were taken round by the charming Marianne, who showed us around the original winery, where we could see both the old wooden barrels and the hyper-modern temperature controlled stainless steel tanks.

They even have pipes running under the road to enables the grapes to be crushed on one side of the road in what looks like the original building, and then run straight into the stainless steel tanks in the building on the other side of the road! It’s a most impressive set-up and the wines they produce reflect that.

After our visit, and an explanation of many of the processes, we sat down with Marianne to try a number of wines. Even using the spittoon, after we got through it seemed like a good idea to get something to eat, and where better than the rooftop bar, the Belvedere, with its phenomenal views over the surrounding landscape. It would also give us the opportunity to discuss which of the wines we’d tried we actually wanted to buy.

A plate of charcuterie and cheese later (and a free glass of wine with lunch) and we were ready to shop. 6 boxes of wine later we were helped to load the car (after a swift unload to make sure everything went in in the right order) and presented with a bottle of wine that Marianne said was her favourite crémant to add to the haul we’d paid for. We were liking this free wine thing! We were ready to pick our way carefully back to Colmar for the rest of the day.

Having dropped the car back in the car park, we headed into town to hunt down the Tourist Information office to see what information we could pick up. We kept on getting sidetracked though because Colmar is jaw-droppingly lovely and there were oddities round every corner, like the giant soft toy gingerbread man! At least we understood that gingerbread is very much an Alsace thing. There are those who claim that the crusaders brought it back to Europe, but how true that is I have no idea. Also that the Chinese started it, with Mi-Kong (“honey bread), a delicacy made from wheat flour and honey, fragranced with aromatic plants and baked in the oven. Whatever the case, Alsaciens like it, and it’s everywhere, even made into liquers and spirits that can be added to crémant to make a kir!

There was an artisans’ market going on in the former Customs House (the Koifhus) which detained us for a while, both looking at what was on offer and getting a look inside the building. It was planned in 1433, and the current building dates to 1480 and two more buildings were added in the 16th century. The condition of the building in the 19th century was so poor that it came close to being demoloshed, but instead it was restored in the late 1890s, when a turret and glazed tiles were added. It was renovated again in 2002 to replace the Renaissance style sandstone balustrade which was removed in 1976. It was used as a warehouse and as a place of taxation for imported and exported goods as well as for meetings of the representatives of the Décapole, the federation of the 10 imperial cities of Alsace. Today it was being used to display a range of attractive good including some glassware that really caught my eye.

We stopped off to look at the collegiate church of Saint Martin. It dominates the square on which it sits and is as impressive inside as outside. The building itself was constructed between 1235 and 1365 and is a brilliant example of Gothic architecture in Alsace. Needless to say with a city as closely packed as Colmar is, there have been frequent fires, and in 1572 the framework of the south tower and all the roofs were destroyed, so what you can see now is much more modern. It has also undergone several restorations, the most recent in 1982 which gave the archaeologists a chance to have root around. They found foundations of a 1000 year old church as well as traces of extensions from the 11th and 12th centuries.

It’s an interesting church and there are a number of features that are quite surprising to the modern visitor, including the anti-semitic and downright offensive so-called “Judensäue, a testament to the troubled history of the Jews in Alsace, that came to a ghastly climax in 1349, when they were accused of causing plague by poisoning the wells. On February 14 several hundred Jews were massacred during the Strasbourg pogrom and any remaining Jews were forbidden to settle in the town, being reminded every evening at 10 o’clock by a bell and a municipal herald blowing the “Grüselhorn” that they had to leave. I’m guessing the only reason they stayed in the surrounding towns was the lack of anywhere else they could go, if the prevailing attitude was so vile.

The interior is quite plain, having lost a lot of its furniture during the French Revolution, but it does still have one of the many Baroque organs built by Johann Andreas Silbermann that are everywhere in the region. There are also a nubmer of medieval altars and statues, and a rare Gothic stained glass window of a beardless Christ. The Isenmann altarpiece, of which more in another post, was originally here as well. In 1462 the municipal painter Caspar Isenmann was commissioned to paint a set of panels dedicated to the life of Christ and he completed the word in three years. In 1720 the altar was removed and the paintings were dispersed. The seven surviving panels have been in the Unterlinden Museum since 1853.

We eventually made it to the Tourist Information Office were we realised that for what we wanted to do, the Colmar City Card was actually a good deal. It was €32 each for seven days and gave you access to all the museums (six of them, and you could visit as often as you wanted) as well a trip on one of the tourist trains and a boat trip. We went for it, and then decided we’d have a gentle ride round town on the tourist train straight away. I know some people think they’re a waste of effort but I find them a useful way of getting my bearings, as well as a good excuse to have a sit down…

Afterwards we decided that we had time for one of the museums. We opted for the Musée Bartholdi.

It’s a museum dedicated to the French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, the man who designed the Statue of Liberty, among other colossal works. The house was his birthplace and is full of works by him. These include a lot of preparatory models for monuments that are actually in Colmar, many of which we would find during our stay. I hadn’t realised he also put forward a design for the fountain on the Quinconces in Bordeaux, and the museum had a model for one of the horses to prove it. What’s there is insane enough. Lord knows what he would have built given half a chance.

Bartholdi served in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 as a squadron leader of the National Guard, and possibly as a liaison officer to Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi. As an officer, he took part in the defense of Colmar from Germany, and after the Alsace’s defeat he constructed a number of monuments celebrating French heroism in the defence against Germany. One of those projects was the Lion of Belfort, which is huge. He didn’t do anything by halves, it seems.

Then in 1871 he he went to the United States where he suggested the idea of a massive statue to be given by the French to the Americans in honor of the centennial of American independence. The result was “Liberty, Illuminating the World” as she’s more correctly known. There were lots of items telling the story of the design and construction, though sadly most of it is in French with no translation into any other languages. This seemed a bit of a shame, really, as it was fine for people like me, but I’m pretty sure a lot of visitors won’t be able to read French and could probably do with some help to understand exactly what was going on.

We stepped back out later having learned something new, which is never a bad thing. It was time though to quit for the day and go back to the hotel for dinner. The area round the hotel was looking especially lovely so we decided we’d step out from the hotel to look for an aperitif later on.

Travel 2019 – Alsace and Baden, Day 7, Voegtlinshoffen, Colmar Thursday, 19th September 2019 - Voegtlinshoffen, Colmar Voegtlinshoffen is a tiny village which is not one of the half-timbered confections that so many Alsace villages are, because most of those were destroyed in the course of the Thirty Years’ War and rebuilt afterwards in a more simple style.

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marketisan · 4 years

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Great Pinot Noirs of Alsace # 3⠀ ⠀ • Sélection Parcellaire Steinbach Pinot Noir •⠀ Joseph Cattin - @famillecattin⠀ Alsace, France⠀ ⠀ in 3 words: intense, aromatic, beautiful⠀ ⠀ ⠀ #wine #winestagram #winetime #winewednesday #food #whitewine #drink #foodandwine #alsace #pinotnoir #wein #wines

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winceats · 4 years

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The Cheese Geek is a online cheesemonger that has been set out to provide the best quality cheeses with a click of a button. The man behind this innovative concept is Edward Hancock. He formed the company in 2017 in his home and realised it was more than a hobby and he moved into the first business premises a year later.

Prior to setting up The Cheese Geek, Edward was a fund manager, building algorithms for systematic funds, and it was this technological understanding that he applied his knowledge in creating an algorithm to allocate cheese to subscribers. He loved the idea of his subscribers getting the opportunity to learn more about what they were eating and also having access to the condiments that would go best with them.

This subscription box is like no other, they take pride and joy in getting your cheeses delivered fresh and right to your door. They use sheep wool, a bi-product which is environmentally friendly – with no plastics or polystyrene – which maintains the right temperature for 48 hours after they chill it.

The Cheese Geek not only brings you the freshest cheeses but they also hold events as well; from small group blind tasting experiences, dinner parties and cheese and wine tastings, to weddings or corporate events of all shapes and sizes, they can provide everything you need. We had the pleasure of being invited to their ‘meet the cheese geek’ Christmas event last month, where we tried their Christmas cheeses. On arrival Edward greeted us at the door holding a tray of Tunworth cheese on honey glazed crackers- a delightful taster.

There were two tables set out one with a display of condiments and the other with a lot of tasty looking cheeses. We started off the evening with 8 different hard cheeses:

Mrs Kirkhams Lancashire – buttery, nutty, yoghurty. Sparkenhoe Red Leicester – smooth, nutty and buttery. Lancashire Bomb – strong, nutty and creamy. Montgomery’s Cheddar – crumbly, hard, grainy, aromatic, strong with a long finish. Keens Cheddar – strong, tangy cheddar with a mellow depth of flavour. Comte – fudge, Butterscotch, Toasted Hazelnuts. Vintage Poacher – tangy, nutty, melted butter on toast. Truffle Pecorino – Milky nuttiness, bordering on sweet caramel, with an earthiness emphasised by the truffles.

We were given the chance to create our very own dream cheeseboard! To create our ultimate cheeseboard, we had to choose 5 of our favourite cheeses, this was pretty easy for my sister and I as we had pretty much the same taste! From the first 8 cheeses we chose the Bomb we just both loved how crumbly and creamy the taste and texture was, mouthwatering just thinking about it. Our second choice was the Truffle Pecorino with its milky and truffle taste we just wanted more.

Whilst we were trying the cheeses, Tatty from ‘The Wine Down’ passionately described which wines would go with what. She had bought 5 different wines:

Tapiz Torrontes Extra Brut Muscadet de Sevre et Maine Sur Lie 2018 Domaine de la Tourmaline Edelzwicher Special Cuvee, Joseph Cattin 2017 Oliver Dubois Cuvee Prestige Pinot Noir 2017 VdF Royal Tokaji Late Harvest 2016

Next up on the cheeses were some of their soft cheeses:

Baron Bigod – buttery indulgence, smooth mushroom earthy-ness Bath Soft – brie-style, creamy, mushroomy with a hint of citrus Brie de Meaux – mushroom, damp leaves, butter Tunworth – mushroom, butter, cabbage Vacherin – creamy, smokey, decadent and gooey Epoisses – butter, silky, creamy

From the soft cheese selection we chose our all time favourite Tunworth and Epoisses. Both different from each other but very delicious and addictive. Next were the blue cheeses, which paired nicely with ‘Royal Tokaji Late Harvest 2016’ a dessert wine. The sweetness of the wine brings out the salty flavours in the blue cheese, making them a great pair.

Beauvale – creamy, mellow, salty spice Cropwell Bishop Blue Stilton – nutty caramel sweetness with a clean finish Burt’s Blue – Butter, Cream Shropshire Blue – Salt, Spice, Musty

For our final cheese we chose the Shropshire Blue – the best one we thought out of the blues. It was mouthwateringly good.

After choosing our favourite 5 we all moved to the table with all the condiments. There was a lot of fruit and herbs to choose from, to create our ultimate Christmas cheeseboard.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and learnt a lot about the cheeses and tasted great wines. This is a great gift for someone special this Christmas, or if you fancy treating yourself – we highly recommend, you won’t regret it!

*Disclosure: This was an invite to The Cheese Geek Christmas Event.

Meet The Cheese Geeks The Cheese Geek is a online cheesemonger that has been set out to provide the best quality cheeses with a click of a button.

#Cheese boards #Cheese Heaven #Cheese Lovers #Cheese Tasting #Cheesmas #Christmas Cheese Event #Condiments #Cows Cheese #Dairy #Food and Drink Event #Food Event #Goats Cheese #Wine Tasting

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nataliemaclean · 6 years

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Joseph Cattin Hatschbourg Gewurztraminer 2015 Alsace A.C., France

Natalie's Score: 93/100

https://www.nataliemaclean.com/wine-reviews/joseph-cattin-hatschbourg-gewurztraminer-2015/285603 #wine #lcbo #saq #bcldb #winelover #winewednesday #winery #winenight #wineoclock #winemaker #wineblog #winedinner #wineoftheday #winecellar #vineyard #vino #lovewine #wines #redwine

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mylifestuffeve · 7 years

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So, the list of the wine I've tasted this year from this event are as per below: 1. Terre A Terre, Sauvignon Blanc-Down To Earth 2016 (Adelaide Hils, 🇦🇺) 2. Small Valley, Chardonnay 2016 (Adelaide Hills, 🇦🇺) 3. Brokenwood, Semillon 2016 (Hunter Valley, 🇦🇺) 4. Gosset Champagne, Champagne Brut-Rose N. V. (Ay, Champagne, 🇫🇷) 5. Joseph Cattin, Riesling Grand Cru 2016 (Alsace, 🇫🇷) 6. AIX, Rose 2016 (Coteaux d'Aix en Provence, 🇫🇷) 7. Bodegas Jose Estevez, Ojo De Gallo 2016 (Jerez, 🇪🇸) 8. Babich, Pinot Gris-Marlborough 2016 (Marlborough, 🇳🇿) 9. Max Ferdinand Richter, Riesling-Zeppelin Label Mülheimer Sonnenlay 2016 (Mosel, 🇩🇪) 10. Dombeya, Chardonnay 2015 (Stellenbosch, 🇿🇦) 11. Fratelli, Sangiovese Bianco 2016 (Akluj, Maharashtra, 🇮🇳) 12. Fratelli, Classic Merlot (Akluj, Maharashtra, 🇮🇳) 13. Col Vetoraz, Prosecco Valdobbiadene DOCG-Brut Zero 2016 (Verona, 🇮🇹) 14. G.D Vajra, Moscato D'Asti 2016 (Piedmont, 🇮🇹) 15. Seven Daughters, Moscato 2016 (California, 🇺🇸) . . . . . . . #wine #winefiestasg #straitswinecompany #events #sgevent (at The Clifford Pier)

#winefiestasg #events #wine #straitswinecompany #sgevent

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juniorformulamotorsport · 5 years

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Wednesday, 18th September/Thursday, 19th September 2019 – Restaurant a l’Echevin, Colmar

As part of the deal at the Hostellerie Le Maréchal we had two night’s dinners included (not three, no matter what the young man on reception when we checked in insisted) and although you never know what you might get when it comes to hotel restaurants, in what is clearly paradise for gourmets, Alsace and the restaurant A l’Échevin did not let us down. The first night we drank a glass of local crémant in the bar first, alongside a snack of some rather wonderful pastry straws that were as light as you could wish, which suggested that at least their pastry chef was up to speed.

We then moved into the restaurant and were pleased to be shown to our table (Table 2 apparently) in the long, narrow dining room that overlooked the waters of La Lauch and the barques moored outside. We were slightly less pleased with the acoustics that meant we could hear every word issuing from the irritating couple on the table behind ours (Table 1) but that’s not the hotel’s fault! We were on a set menu with matching wines as part of the deal that the hotel had offered so the decision making process had been largely taken away from us. Now to see if the rest of the brigade could cook as well as the pastry chef. An amuse-bouche of a foie gras paté and an apricot sorbet suggested the answer to that question might well prove to be “yes”.

The menu itself started with what was listed as “Presskopf” of smoked haddock and smoked trout, basically the chef’s take on a regional speciality, brawn, but with fish and not the more usual meat. It was light, delicate, the jelly perfectly set and the herbs just providing a lift of flavour to counteract the oily fish. There were tiny chunks of vegetable alongside the chunks of trout and haddock and it not only looked lovely, it was lovely.

Fillet of pike-perch cooked in Riesling, with mangetout turned out to be a perfectly executed piece of fish, the skin crisp and golden, sitting on top of a bed of mangetout, with a puddle of creamy Riesling inflected sauce. Throw in the odd micro-herb and enjoy! It was also a perfect excuse to rip off a piece of the brilliant bread roll and dunk it in the leftover sauce afterwards. The kitchen was having none of that back!

With both the fish dishes we drank a 2018 Alsace Pinot Blanc from Pierre Henri Ginglinger. The wine comes from a blend of Pinot Auxerrois from different parcels, harvested by hand and fermented over several months before being aged on fine lees. It’s a bright yellow in color, with white-fleshed fruit aromas, and peach notes. We liked it enough to make a note of it and to consider whether we needed to visit the Ginglinger domaine. While we pondered that question, the meat course arrived, a serving of leg of deer with cranberries, cross-border pasta specialty spaetzlés (as the French appear to spell it) and fromage blanc. The meat was cooked to perfection, as were the vegetables and to add a fillip to what might have seemed quite a restrained plate, there was also a “pastilla” full of slow cooked meat to enjoy alongside the pink cooked flesh that we’d been expecting. It was all beautifully executed and we knew we’d made a good choice to eat in the hotel.

A serving of perfectly kept Munster cheese from a local farm came next and was just the thing to help us finish off the red wine, a 2017 Alsace Pinot Noir “Les Princes Abbés” from Domaines Schlumberger, one of the big wine names in these parts. The wine itself is made of a blend of Pinot Noir (80% from the limestone Bollenberg plot and 20% from the marl-limestone Saering plot). Vinification occurs during a maceration period of two weeks and it is then matured in traditional tuns for 10 months. What you get is a wine that is cherry red with purple reflections, and an aroma of red fruit scents (blackcurrant, cherry) and a hint of rose. Redcurrant, blackberry, vineyard peach as it opens out and slight woodiness also come through. It was served at what we might consider a low temperature for red but to get the most out of these wines 16°C is what you’re looking for. It was smooth against the punchiness of the cheese and the combination was really rather wonderful. The spoonful of cumin seeds served alongside the cheese were an interesting – and welcome – touch too.

We finished off with a gourmandise du pâtissier which took the form of a gloriously gooey plum and raspberry confection, on a biscuit base that couldn’t be faulted, the ice cream all creamy and rich and the sorbet sharp and cleansing on the palate. It was looking good for our second night, and we went to bed happy after finishing our dessert wine (and cheering when the annoying pair behind us had cleared the room and gone to their own beds). It made the wine taste even better, which, as it was a 2017 Gewürztraminer Tradition – Gold Medal wine from Bott Frères was quite a smart trick. The wine is brilliant and crystal-clear in shades of light green and has a youthful, fresh and flowery (rose and acacia) aroma, added to an exotic taste of pineapple and oriental spices characteristic of Gewürztraminer. Perfect with dessert and on its own, as we went on to prove!

On the second night we wandered out for an aperitif, ending up drinking a glass of wine by the waterside at La Krutenau, for the simple reason that it was the first bar we came across that had waterside views and an empty table. It was another lovely evening so we were quite content to be outside a while longer.

On our return we decided it was getting a little too cold to stay out for a second aperitif so we took to the room just off the hotel’s courtyard for a second glass of wine and some more of their fabulous pastry straws, before swinging indoors to see what was on offer on the tasting menu. As ever they started us of with a delicate little amuse-bouche before things got serious. We’d deliberately avoided anything after the charcuterie plate at Joseph Cattin’s for the remainder of the day because we reckoned we’d be best arriving hungry. We didn’t even do the flammkuechen as aperitif nibbles thing because that seemed unwise. This time they started us with a cheesy mousse and a tiny tomato gazpacho, which was refreshing and sharp.

And then it was into the serious wine and food. The starter was a terrine of duck foie gras with figs and a fruit chutney. It was smooth and rich and fabulous and it probably didn’t need the toasted brioche with it (though I have to say we both caved and ate part of it). Given we also had more of their fantastic bread as well it was overkill, but gloriously so. With it we moved from the crémant to a far more suitable wine, a 2017 Pinot Gris from Maison Martin Jund, who are now entirely biodynamic in their practices. This wine is described as “expressive and tender, from the very beginning, a fruity wine if there is one”. The resulting wine is a golden yellow with metallic reflections, and the aroma is of ripe yellow fruits (pear, peach). It’s perfectly sweet and an ideal match for foie gras.

The second course was a crayfish casserole, tiny and packed with pieces of sweet-fleshed, juicy, tender crayfish tails, dotted with chives and swimming in a creamy sauce. I loved it (and the little Staub cocottes it was served in, which are from a brand that started in Alsace, and that cost an absolute fortune). I pondered the possibility of getting out of there with one hidden in my handbag! the sheer weight of it put me off the idea, if Lynne had not also vetoed it. We already had a fabric heart that was in our room as a present from the hotel when we arrived. That would be far easier to carry… I settled for mopping up the sauce with the bread roll and we sat and waited to see what else we would be fed.

The second fish dish was a piece of nicely filleted halibut, in a saffron sauce. Saffron is tricky stuff – overdo it and you have a sauce that is bitter and deeply unpleasant. Get it right and you have something golden and warm. They got it right and the fish was also perfect, white and flaking and moist, sitting on a small pile of fresh carrots and a pool of pale golden sauce. Both this and the crayfish came with a 2016 Grand Cru Froehn Riesling from Jean Becker. This wine is made from grapes grown on limestone and sandstone at 270 to 300m on soil consisting of dark gray schistose marls, with fine white limestone beds as well as carbonate and ferruginous nodules. The wine resulting wine is floral and fruity, combining richness, finesse and breadth regardless of varietal and there is a fine and strong acidity that becomes salinity and minerality with aging. Am excellent choice once again. Someone really knows their wine and food matches, and they want you to have the best Alsace can offer

The interlude was a palate cleansing lime and apple sorbet which really woke the tastebuds up and prepared us for a meaty main course and a change of wine.

This came in the shape of a pink-cooked beef fillet, with a fine selection of small organic vegetables including a smooth as silk potato puree, some pickled radish and onions (tiny, sweet, giving a lift to the meat), courgettes, carrots, fine beans and broccoli. The meat could probably have been cut with a spoon, it was so tender and perfectly cooked. There is a sure hand at work in the kitchen, in the shape of the head chef, Thierry Chefdeville, who has been here for two decades, producing a very harmonious menu where each dish could stand along but equally fits together. I would happily eat there again, and that was before we made it all the way through the menu.

The wine served with the beef was a 2017 Alsace Pinot Noir from Pierre Henri Ginglinger. This is made from a blend of Pinot Noir from different plots, harvested by hand, then de-stemmed and allowed to macerate for 15 days. It is then moved to old wooden casks for malolactic fermentation. What you get as a result has a beautiful purple hue, and a nose that is very fruity with notes of cassis and cherries. It’s light, fresh and pleasant with a little tannin and is best served chilled down to between 12 and 14ºC. It also went very well with the assortment of three cheeses which included a relatively young Comté which always makes me happy. But then, Comté always makes me happy, a fact that can probably be confirmed by the bloke at Borough Market who sells it to me and to le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons!

Pré-dessert was chocolate in a number of forms, including ice cream, and would have been a dessert in its own right (and certainly more than sufficient), especially with meringue as well, and I could have happily stopped there.

I was glad I didn’t stop there though. The pineapple and lemon cappuccino mojito-style might not have been desperately photogenic but it was desperately good, with a hit of alcohol and sharp pineapple, underneath a light, foaming lemon cream.

We ended the night full of food and nursing the dreaded food baby (twins I think), more than satisfied with our two dinners in a fine restaurant. We did get stuck with a second table full of irritating fellow diners again though, who were first minded to be annoyed by the service, which they felt was too slow (OK, it’s not quick but you’re there for an evening out so I’d prefer not to be rushed), and who then talked utter nonsense all night, strong in so many incorrect opinions (the Italians didn’t have any colonies or any colonial “adventures” – tell that to the Libyans, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Somalians – and the Germans don’t make cheese being just two of them). So if you do go try and get Table 1 so there won’t be anyone behind you!

Travel/Food 2019 – Alsace and Baden, Days 6 and 7, Restaurant a l’Echevin, Colmar Wednesday, 18th September/Thursday, 19th September 2019 - Restaurant a l’Echevin, Colmar As part of the deal at the…

#2019 #A l’Echevin #Aperitifs #Bars #Colmar #Cooking #Dinners #Drink #Drinks #Europe #Food #Food and Drink #France #Hospitality #Hostellerie Le Maréchal #Hotels #Restaurants #Travel #Wine

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wineanddinosaur · 5 years

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Beyond Burgundy: Where Somms Look for Excellent-Value White Wines

Imagine I told you that you could have a bottle of one of the world’s absolute best white wines, from a truly iconic vineyard, made by a winery that has been family-owned and -operated for centuries. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Now imagine what that wine might cost you. If you’re attuned to the market prices of, say, grand cru white Burgundy, you’re probably estimating upwards of at least $500. And that’s true, if your search for world-class white wine starts and ends in Beaune.

Fortunately, there’s another place not that far away from Burgundy that produces some of the best whites in the world. Despite a measure of international acclaim, it doesn’t command anything like those astronomical prices cited above.

Alsace is the place, and those who love exceptional white wine should become intimately familiar with it.

Where to Look (and Why)

One of the first things winemakers will say about Alsace is how its geology is utterly confusing. Thanks to millions of years of plate tectonics and weathering, the region is a patchwork quilt of soil types, with everything from granite to limestone to clay to shale, often within a short distance of one another.

In certain vineyards you can even see the soil composition change between individual rows. This means that the same variety can have wildly different expressions from vineyard to vineyard and village to village. It’s tricky to navigate, of course, but demonstrates the region’s remarkable versatility.

The region is famous for its Riesling and Pinot Gris, and they comprise the majority of plantings within the 51 grand crus of Alsace. Gewürztraminer and Muscat round out the region’s so-called “noble varietals.” Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Auxerrois, and even Chardonnay are also grown here, as well as Pinot Noir.

The Rangen de Thann is a dizzyingly steep grand cru vineyard situated at the southern edge of Alsace. It’s home to two of the most iconic vineyards in the world: Clos St. Urbain, owned by Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, and Clos St. Théobald, owned by Domaine Schoffit.

In both locations, grapes are grown on meager volcanic soils. This gives the resulting wines smoky notes that defies their varietals and defines the vineyards. Vintages dating back to the mid-’90s remain vital and penetrating. Oh, and did I mention that you can buy the current releases of each for (much) less than $100?

Arguably the most iconic wine in all of Alsace is Maison Trimbach’s Clos Ste. Hune Riesling. Grown in a specific type of limestone, known as muschelkalk, which is studded with the ancient fossils of sea critters, it is a knockout wine. It has incredible complexity and freshness, even with extensive aging. Best of all, you can buy it for less than $200.

Beyond the Usual Suspects

Despite the saccharine reputation Riesling has in America, Alsatian Rieslings have typically been made quite dry. Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer, on the other hand, were traditionally left sweet in Alsace. Now, more forward-thinking producers are reorienting their winemaking to produce dry versions of those varieties. These new iterations are more versatile at the dinner table and, in many cases, more interesting to drink.

Additionally, while Alsace has always taken crémant seriously, there’s been a tremendous surge in excellent, widely available sparkling wine from the region. (Seeing as how white wine grapes grow so well in Alsace, it makes sense that it would make great sparkling wine.) You can find versions made from the noble grapes, of course, but perhaps the most exciting things are happening with Pinot Noir.

If you want something besides white wine, Alsace has been making great strides as a producer of elegant, expressive Pinot Noir. Climate change has indeed played a considerable role in this shift. While Pinot Noir remains a small part of the general plantings, several producers are excited about the long-term potential to make Pinot Noir to rival Burgundy. Valérie Beyer of Domaine Emile Beyer had even gone so far as to replace some of her vines in the Pfersigberg grand cru vineyard with Pinot Noir. It’s as bold a statement as any winemaker can make in such a storied region.

Alsace may not yet possess the cache and cultural sway of Burgundy, but that hardly matters. Who needs those agonizingly expensive and frustratingly elusive wines when another region with exceptional terroir and history lies just around the bend?

For those who might require a gravy train to finance our wine-soaked dreams, this is it. Alsace has arrived.

Five Bottles to Try … and One to Covet

Joseph Cattin Crémant d’Alsace Brut

There are of course plenty of fine examples of Alsatian crémant widely available, but this bottling made from 100 percent Pinot Blanc highlights the region’s strength in sparkling wine that is both highly drinkable and yet more rich and complex than many other crémants from the rest of France. Average price: $15.

Famille Hugel Riesling

A wonderful introduction to Alsace’s take on Riesling: bright and full of tart lime, racy and a touch bitter, yet at the same time quite dry and more full-bodied than what you’ll often find across the border in Germany. Average price: $18.

Emile Beyer Tradition Pinot Noir

Alsace’s increased interest in Pinot Noir has caused a surge in bottlings, with growers and producers alike eager to show off what their region can do with this iconic grape. Here, bright bursts of tart red cherry mix with hints of anise and clove to produce a surprisingly complex, very affordable wine. Average price: $22.

Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris

The low-intervention winemaking at Zind-Humbrecht pays off big time with this nuanced, fascinating Pinot Gris that’s so vastly different from the Pinot Grigio you might be familiar with. Ripe pear and white peach are the most obvious fruit notes, but there’s also a savory, almost meaty quality to the wine that reminds you that, oh yeah, Pinot Gris is really a red grape at heart. Average price: $25.

Domaine Schoffit ‘Clos Saint-Théobald’ Rangen de Thann Grand Cru Riesling

If you want to understand the majesty of one of Alsace’s most iconic vineyards, this bottling from Domaine Schoffit’s holdings in the Rangen de Thann is the perfect way to do so. The smell of smoke and allspice, the vibrant acidity, and the incredible texture of the wine perfectly capture the unique growing conditions of this most intimidating vineyard. Average price: $60.

Maison Trimbach Clos Ste. Hune

The archetypal Alsatian Riesling, and yet somehow so much more. Rich and yet lean, ripe and yet tart, mineral-laden and yet full-bodied, this wine is the most intriguing, delicious contradiction I’ve ever tasted. Average price: $200.

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