Alsace wines don’t have it easy. Most wine drinkers will associate the region with the popular sweet wines of the seventies. And with the success of the German and other Rieslings, interest in Alsace wines seems to have only declined further. Some large importers have one or two houses in their portfolio, but most of them will indicate that there is ‘no demand at all’ for Alsace wines. Has Alsace entered a dead end street? I don’t think so.
New generation of winemakers
A new generation of wine makers has been active in Alsace for about ten years. They exchange ideas and… they experiment. It has already led to remarkable improvements in quality, which haven’t gone unnoticed by wine critics. Moreover, these young winemakers know their market. They understand that they have to respond to the increasing demand for lighter wines in order to put Alsace back on the map. So they produce dry white wines, such as pinot gris, with only 0.5 grams of residual sugar. And the Alsatian Pinot Noir, rounder in taste than before, is also becoming increasingly popular.
Orange
“The dry Alsatians in particular are on their way back,” wine specialist Albert de Jong recently confirmed at a tasting in Amsterdam. And that’s not all. It is remarkable that almost all major houses now offer Orange wines. The Gewürztraminer is often used for this, which produces beautiful results. But natural wine is also produced from combinations of grapes with wood laying. These are perhaps the most complex wines that Alsace now produces. Even I, usually not a fan of these wines, enjoyed a glass of it. Anyone who wants to get started with natural wines should certainly not ignore the creative winemakers of Alsace.
Unclear
Like German wines, Alsace wines suffer from a major disadvantage: the average wine buyer has no idea whether the wine is dry, slightly sweet, medium sweet or even very sweet. New divisions have now been devised in both Germany and Alsace to overcome this problem. The label must show at a glance what kind of wine the buyer is dealing with. Unfortunately, implementation is not yet running smoothly. As a result, that persistent sweet wine image still clings to Alsatian wines. And there’s no reason for that. If you look at the total production, mainly dry wines have always been made in Alsace. And that is only increasing. An example is the production of Alsatian Cremant. There is a demand for a cheaper alternative to Champagne and the quality of sparkling wine from Alsace is excellent.
A second example is the dry wine from the Muscat grape. This wine is also on the rise. The new generation of winemakers sees the possibilities of this grape and is planting it more and more. Moreover, the market is ready for it: restaurant kitchens are becoming increasingly broader and more worldly. With herbs and spices that need some counterbalance. This Muscat is often a great accompaniment to Asian dishes.
My advice
For those who have never forgotten Alsace: the region is only becoming more interesting. For those who need to rediscover it: consider the new generation of Alsace wine, especially when you need a nice summer wine. I’d love to tell you more about it.
And if you visit Alsace during your holiday, consider a stop in Heiligenstein on the Alsatian wine route. There they make the unique Klevener de Heiligenstein from the Savagnin Rose grape. Although it is a bit sweeter, it cannot be missed!
