While the first part of my vacation was Beer-centric, the second part is much heavier on the vine than the barley. My Fiance, best friend, and his wife headed down to Strassbourg France for a couple of days in the Alsace region. Great food, great wine, and great company was a fine way to spend the second part of my vaction. Between walking around the city, eating some tart flambe's and drinking Riesling, and Pinot Noir, we went on a tour of the Alsace Wine Trail. While I didn't get to stop at many wineries since it was the off season, we were able to go to 2 tastings.
The first was at Klipfel Wine Cave. Klipfel is a pretty nice winery with a wide selection of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Gewurztraminer. We were able to taste all of the above, but the highight by far was a 7 year old Grand Cru Riesling and a 5 year old late harvest Gewurztraminer. Both were absolutely amazing, with the Riesling still showing some of their characteristic sweetness, pear and apricots, but with many more notes of mineraliness and a bit of petrol. The gewurztraminer was amazing especially noting that it would be a few more years before reaching its peak of approachiblity.
The second winery we went to was a small tiny place run by an old French couple outside the town of Barr. We sat around their dining room table tasting some of their wines. While none were as complex as the best of the Klipfel's they were all amazing especially their Pinot Gris. Over the next few weeks I will be opening some of the bottles I purchased at both of those places and tasting them to make sure that I like them now as much as I did back then. For some of the late harvest ones...well those notes may take a couple of years.
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