Alsace: The 2015s and Late-Released 2014s

BY IAN D’AGATA | MARCH 23, 2017

I find it remarkable that a region so steeped in tradition and history is also as forward-thinking as Alsace, with its wine producers and lawmakers willing to work together to break new ground. To cite just one example: how many times have you heard that it is impossible in the modern age to identify and classify the top sites in a wine production area? Well, in 1975 Alsace began that complicated process by delimiting its grand cru vineyards. And although the way those sites were drawn up was not beyond criticism (see below), at least a workable, easy-to-grasp classification was devised. In fact, this step has proven so successful that even those estates that most strenuously resisted it initially have finally caved in. Trimbach and Hugel, for example, are now producing wines whose labels clearly indicate either the name of a grand cru or a specific site.

The hillsides at Turckheim and the Zind Humbrecht winery

Another example of Alsace’s pragmatic, let’s-get-it-done approach is how the region, famous for its outstanding late-harvest sweet wines, went about creating production guidelines for these bottlings, establishing the rules by which Vendanges Tardives and Séléction de Grains Nobles wines can be made (with the significant contribution of the late, great Johnny Hugel). In other countries, such as Italy for example, it’s unclear to consumers most of the time whether they are drinking a sweet wine made from air-dried or late-harvested grapes, or both.

Most important, in the 1960s Alsace identified its noblest grapes and has steadfastly remained anchored to the varieties and wines for which the region has always been best known. When the international trend of the late 1970s and ‘80s toward planting Chardonnay and other international varieties reached Alsace, it was intelligently stopped cold. Clearly, given the region’s northerly location, planting Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot was never an issue, but Chardonnay has never been elevated to grand cru status in Alsace either, even though some of the region’s producers did push for this possibility. Thus Alsace has avoided the plight of many other wine regions of the world that now make copious amounts of essentially interchangeable Chardonnays, Cabernets and Merlots that no one wants to drink.

A New Category of Premier Crus