Pinot as Metaphor: The Blend is Back
The permissible variety of 'Pinot' is a of course the blanket for the family of Pinot grapes. The grapes included in this group are Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and Auxerrois. There is a tradition of making single variety Pinot Blanc in Alsace, but the same name is more often used to as a euphemism for a blend of one of more of the grapes under this umbrella. So "Pinot" is actually one of Alsace's traditional blended wines, which often go under the labels of Klevner, Klevner d'Alsace, and Pinot d'Alsace, among others.

Gentil & Edelzwicker
So after all this talk of varietal labeling, the history of blended wines in Alsace is just as lengthy. There are two other commonly used names for blended wines, Gentil and Edelzwicker. Gentil, meaning noble, gives one the sense that such a wine has some pedigree, and this generally is true. The name is not in wide use today, because it was officially banned in 1973, but it was reintroduced in the early 1990s. J.-B. Adam makes a lovely Gentil that is an insanely good value, and Hugel makes a five grape blend called Gentil, but one of Hugel's most famous wines was their marvelous Gentil Sporen, a blend of Riesling and Pinot Gris from the what is now the Grand Cru Sporen.

Edelzwicker has a more complicated history, but it is actually an appellation in its own right. Until the early 1970s there were two categories of AOC blends in Alsace: Zwicker and Edelzwicker, with Edelzwicker being the superior wine. When Zwicker was eliminated as a qualitative level, Edelzwicker was itself devalued, so that now if a great estate makes an Edelzwicker, it is the kind that cherishes local history (Rolly Gassmann and Bruno Sorg come to mind). The more commercially conscious sell their blended wine under a proprietary name as Vin d'Alsace. Plenty of Edelzwicker is still made by...non-great estates..., but most of it is shipped across the Rhine to Germany to be choked down by the Germans (who created the Zwicker/Edelzwicker mess in the first place).

Great Alsace Blends
As I alluded earlier when referring to Hugel's Sporen Gentil, Alsace produces some sensational blended wines. If the tendency is to lump blends in with Edelzwicker exists, it is only for simplicity--the producers of top-class blends see no similarity between them. The proprietors who own vines in the Kaefferkopf vineyard resisted the offer of Grand Cru status because they refused to stop making the blended wines for which Kaefferkopf was known. Since Grands Crus could be made from but one variety, they had no wish to continue making non-Grand Cru blends from a Grand Cru vineyard when they could no longer even use the vineyard's NAME. In 2006 this changed, as the INAO allowed blends from the Altenberg de Bergheim Grand Cru to retain Grand Cru status, and they finally brought in Kaefferkopf (which was the very first officially delimited vineyard in Alsace, in 1932) as a Grand Cru that could be blended. In each case, specific yield limits and blend proportions were outlined, and thus has begun the first official recognition of the great blends of Alsace. Perhaps the Gentil Sporen will return from Hugel, should Sporen ever be sanctioned for blended wines (though occasionally the wine has surfaced as "S" Hugel). Another magnificent blend is Marc Kreydenweiss' Clos du Val d'Eléon, a blend of Riesling and Pinot Gris.

Popularity: 3% [?]