This June 15-17, if you are among the lucky few to have tickets for the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, I hope you will put "The Age of Alsace" on your schedule. There are two sessions on the schedule, one on Friday morning, and the other on Saturday morning. Andrea Robinson will be leading the seminar, which will no doubt be a fun and edifying event for anyone interested in white wine, whether or not you know much about the wines of Alsace. I have no idea what wines will be included in the tasting, but I imagine you'll get to taste Zind-Humbrecht's Zind, which would be an ideal wine for such an occasion. It's a good bet that wines from such other fine producers as Hugel, Gustav Lorentz, Trimbach, and Weinbach will be on the table as well.

Hope to see you there!

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If you're planning a trip to Alsace soon, this may offer a lovely frame of reference. Approaching Kaysersberg by car on the Route du Vin, with a whirlwind tour of some sights around the village.

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When I was in Alsace this past February, I happened to be there during a school break similar to Spring Break in the U.S. The timing of it is intended, as I understand, to provide a winter break and travel time for families in areas (like Alsace) that are very busy with tourism at the end of the calendar year. I was unaware of how far reaching this would turn out to be, but most of Alsace's service industry is, it would appear, family run. I had intended to stay in Kaysersberg, so I called ahead to the hotel I'd had in mind (right as I was turning into the drive at Domaine Weinbach) and discovered that it was closed. Since I was right on time for my appointment at Weinbach, I didn't have time to call other hotels, so I postponed my search.

While tasting at Weinbach, I asked Laurence Faller if she had any ideas, and after naming a few, she suggested that we consult with her mother when we finished. After Laurence left to run an errand, Madame Colette Faller spent over half an hour helping me find a place--it turns out that most of the hotels and restaurants I was interested in visiting were closed. Madame Faller eventually asked if I minded driving a little further, which I did not, so she called the Hôtel du Faudé in Lapoutroie, which is not much more of a drive--only ten minutes from Kaysersberg.

Lapoutroie is situated partway up the slopes of the Vosges Mountains, overlooking the Kaysersberg Valley. You can't miss the Hôtel du Faudé as you enter the village, and it is a lovely place. Based on my conversation with Chantal Baldinger, who, along with her husband Thierry, owns the Hôtel du Faudé, I inferred that the hotel was actually open because it is quite close to a popular ski area, and I met a family who had come for that exact purpose. Showing that the people of the area and its tourists have their priorities in the right place, this small, family-run hotel has three restaurants! One of these restaurants, Le Faudé Gourmet, should have at least one Michelin star, but I gather the Michelin folks haven't been up here, because there's no other plausible excuse for this omission. The two remaining restaurants are more regionally specific: one focuses on Alsatian cuisine (La Stewala), and the other (Le Grenier Welche) is devoted to ancestral dishes distinct from the Alsatian tradition (more on this later). Of course, in both of these two dining rooms, one can order from either menu.

Lapoutroie itself is an extraordinary place, in that it is one of five villages where you can hear an ancient patois known as Welche spoken around you. It is one of the Langues d'œil (which some moron on Wikipedia incorrectly spells as Langues d'oïl, and refuses to change it, naturally...but where was I?), with the Langue d'œil being the antecedent of modern French. This is worth caring about from a worldwide standpoint only because it is a dialect in the midst of resurrection--it almost died out in the middle of the 20th Century: the Germans wouldn't allow it, and after WWII, the French government made French the required language. When they relaxed this law in the 1960s it took decades for a new generation to force their way into knowledge of it, so the renaissance continues, and it is from this well of tradition that the restaurant at Faudé draws inspiration.

The hotel itself is quite lovely--the room was excellent, and if you don't like the typical French hotel bathroom, then you'll love this place, as the bathroom had a shower stall. It was very quiet at night (this being a snowy February 10), and it was a peaceful place to walk. There are other attractions, including a the Miclo distillery and the Musée des Eaux de Vie. My short experience with Lapoutroie was excellent, and I regret that I could not spare the time to explore it further, because if it is half as vibrant as the many residents I met, then it is a special place indeed.

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Eguisheim is one of the most rewarding places to visit in Alsace. This video tour offers a bit of the sights around the village.

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Alsace is a fascinating place. It is only barely on the radar of countries to the west of it, and this would include France. Aside from wine growers across the Rhine (in Rheingau and Pfalz especially), the Germans tend to overlook it, too. The Swiss, however, are, on the whole, entranced by Alsace. I doubt you could easily find a Swiss that doesn't vacation there, but since Switzerland isn't a particularly populous nation, Alsace remains one of Europe's best kept secrets.

While Alsace is undeniably part of France, and has been since Barbarian hordes waged war throughout western Europe, one need not gaze long at any single village throughout this picturesque region to see how deeply it is rooted in medieval Teutonic influence.  The half-timbered buildings and narrow, cobbled streets so effectively co-opted by Disney truly run the risk of being surreal to more jaded visitors, but this only adds to the charm. After a while it can feel as though you are in Bavaria...until you speak to someone.

And in Alsace, this is not hard to do.  There can hardly be a friendlier region in the world than Alsace.  An interesting disposition, given the history of bloodshed it has endured (Julius Caesar swept through with a Roman Legion; the Thirty Years' War destroyed most of Alsace's vineyards; more recently it became a geo-political ping-pong ball with the Franco-Prussian War and WWI; and it suffered near obliteration during the final years of WWII), but perhaps it was the only way to survive and even thrive under such stresses. This no doubt has something to do with why Alsatians have a regional loyalty, considering themselves first Alsatian, then French, much the way Virginians or Texans do (though perhaps not for the same reason...).

The Wines
The wine culture in Alsace is very much its own. The wines of Alsace are labeled by grape variety, not by regional appellation. The grapes grown there, of which there are ten varieties, yield wildly different wines, giving Alsace wines excellent utility with food. Ninety percent of the wines made in Alsace are white, and are as a rule, dry. Riesling is at its zenith (in the dry style, anyway), in Alsace, and it is justifiably the most heavily planted variety. The other major varieties are Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc.

Wines are mostly sold by single variety, but there are some blended exceptions. The wines can be subdivided further, in one case by a Grand Cru system, and in another by two categories of late harvest wines, which are:

• Vendanges Tardives--picked late, often affected by botrytis cinerea, or 'noble rot' that reduces the water content of grapes, concentrating the raw materials and intensifying the flavors. Once upon a time these wines were vinified dry by almost everyone, but as temperatures have increased, that has not often been an option.
• Sélection des Grains Nobles--grapes that are picked even later, and have to be affected by botrytis cinerea. These wines are sweet but insanely complex--sometimes so riveting that the sweetness doesn't impact your palate as 'sweet'. These wines are expensive enough to make your palms sweat, but they can be glorious.

As for the Grands Crus, they represent the system of delimiting certain vineyards as superior. This is controversial, of course, but there is plenty of evidence for the establishment of this kind of delimitation in Alsace. Only four grape varieties--Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Pinot Gris, and Riesling--are entitled to Grand Cru status in any of the fifty-one Grands Crus of Alsace. The controversy surrounding the Grands Crus results from the democratic way they were chosen, not always on demonstrated superiority, and that they are too large to be entirely capable of producing wines of exalted status and price. On top of this, there are many areas, often walled vineyards known as clos, that aren't Grands Crus but certainly could be. Despite the controversy, the results have generally been in line with the original intent.

The Wine Road
The Wine Route (Route du Vin) through Alsace makes a splendid bicycle (or car) tour that will take you through nearly 100 villages along the Vosges Mountains. Colmar, known as La Petite Venice for its idyllic series of canals, is the only town-sized stop along the route. Key stops along the way include Eguisheim, Gueberschwihr, Kaysersberg, Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, Thann, and Turckheim. The village of Beblenheim, technically not on the Route du Vin, also makes a wonderful stop. These villages on the wine route also have summer festivals where they pull out all the stops. In the case of Ribeauvillé, the fountain in the city center literally flows with wine.

Alsace also provides fabulous travel by barge through its canal system. As in Burgundy or on the Canal du Midi in the southwest, one can go in luxurious style on a barge with staterooms, or on a self-guided tour. The villages along the wine route are easily accessible by barge as well.

The Food
Finally, Alsatian cuisine is indeed its own category, as it is a crossing of German and French cuisines. It tends toward the heavier, Germanic side, but the French influence has given Alsatian cuisine its unique nature. Alsace is the bread capital of France. The famous Kugelhopf has crossed international boarders, but there are more kinds of bread made there than in any other region, offering much to explore. An extraordinarily broad array of charcuterie is made in Alsace, and it is one of France's sources of Foie Gras. And for restaurant lovers, one of the world's few Michelin three-star restaurants, L'Auberge de l'Ill is a must.

Alsace gives much to discover, but start with the wines, and let them draw you in, too.

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