Alsace 2012s and Early-Released 2013s

If I were banished to a desert island and allowed to bring an infinite supply of just one white wine, my pick would be a Riesling, either from Alsace or the Mosel. The only other white wine that would garner even a fleeting second thought would be an Alsatian Gewürztraminer, on account of its uniqueness and entertainment value.

In fact, what most distinguishes Alsace from other white wine meccas such as Burgundy or the Mosel is that it offers wine lovers not just one but numerous outstanding wines made from multiple grape varieties. Another positive is that the region is heaven for terroir lovers. The best sites for each grape variety have been identified over a period of centuries; as was the case in Burgundy, the heads of local abbeys and the nobles who ruled over each village were keenly aware of the plots from which the best wines came, and they selected wines - and levied taxes - accordingly. Alsace also benefits from having one of France’s highest percentages of total vineyard area farmed organically or biodynamically -14%, and growing each year. And it speaks volumes about the winemaking skills of the region’s producers that the majority of their organic and biodynamic wines are quite drinkable, when so many are flawed. While I appreciate the effort to make wines from organic grapes, I worry that fashion has caused many to jump on a generalized “natural” bandwagon in which wines are characterized by, for example, excessive volatile acidity or acetaldehyde notes, i.e. a bruised apple smell. Happily, in Alsace, many estates engaged in wine production from organic grapes make lovely wines.

Overlooking Schlumberger's Grand Cru Kitterlé Vineyards, towards Guebwiller

The Issue of Sweet “Dry” Wines

If there is one problem with white wines from Alsace, it’s that over the last 20 years many wines that are marketed as dry have included a fair amount of residual sugar. This tendency can often be chalked up to producer preference. “Many in Alsace view a wine with 20 grams per liter of residual sugar as a dry wine and that’s just not so,” said Rémy Gresser. Climate change is also a factor, as warmer days lead to riper grapes. Since 2003, the average date of flowering is a good month earlier than it was as recently as the 1980s.

According to Yann Béyer of Léon Beyer, another factor explaining the tendency of producers to make slightly sweet “dry” wines is that “too many estates in Alsace sell most of their wines right out of their homes. In such cases, wines carrying a little more residual sugar might sell more easily, but wines that are mainly exported cannot and should not be like that. Not only is the aromatic quality of our wines lost when the grapes are overripe, but they don’t speak of the diverse Alsace terroirs.” Beyer exports 80% of their total production, but the average in Alsace is 30%, and this disparity can lead to very different viewpoints on the subject of residual sugar.

On the whole, however, sweetness levels have been largely scaled back during the last five years. Many producers are now using a handy numerical scale on their back labels to help their customers anticipate the sweetness level of the wines. Unfortunately, not all producers have agreed to use such scales, so some vigilance - or knowledge about the producer - is required when buying these wines. Trimbach, to take one example, makes resolutely dry wines.