05/31/05 Alsace

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran and today we are going to explore the Alsace region of France. Alscae is a region of France known for many things. In fact this is where the Statue of Liberty was created. Alsace is also a wine region in France where they grow many of the grapes that we typically equate to Germany, grapes such as Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Blanc. This seems to create difficulty for many wine drinkers in understanding the wines of Alsace. Although the two places may grow the same kinds of grapes they produce wines of very different styles. The Alsace ferment their wines very dry with an typical alcohol content of eleven to twelve percent. So the majority of the wines from Alsace will be bone dry. Whereas the Germans elect to retain more of the sugars and create wines that are often fruitier, sweeter and lower in alcohol . In Alsace any wine that is labeled with the grape varietal must be 100% of the named varietal. No blending. This region is known as being one of the driest areas in France especially during harvest. Most of the growers don't own enough property to make the production of their own label financially practical. So there are shippers who purchase blend, bottle, label and market the wines. Get to know the most reputable shippers as it is up to their ability to select and produce wine of quality. I recommend, Trimbach spelled TRIMBACH and Hugel spelled HUGEL. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.