On the road again in Alsace

Touring with 4 people from North Carolina.

As France opens up for Europe and the rest of the world, it is great to be able to tour again.

Covid - the situation in France - timetable for May and June

Timetable May 19 - June 30 - 2021:

May 19 - Terrasses (bars and restaurants) will reopen with a maximum of 6 persons per table. Evening clock from 21.00

June 9 - With a "pass sanitaire" people will be able to travel from and into France. Evening clock from 23.00

June 15 - Night clubs will re-open. 

June 30 - Evening clock will disappear​

Hope to meet you soon! In the meantime stay safe and healthy!

Tijdlijn Mei 19 - Juni 30 - 2021:

Mei 19 - Terrassen (bars en restaurants) heropenen met een maximum van 6 personen per tafel. Avondklok tot 21.00 uur.

Juni 9 - Met een "pass sanitaire" kunnen mensen "vrij" van en naar Frankrijk reizen.. Avondklok tot 23.00 uur.

Juni 15 - Nachtclubs weer open 

Juni 30 - Avondklok verdwijnt.

​Blijf gezond en graag tot ziens !

An impression of some JoliSoleil wine tours.

A giftcard for a JoliSoleil wine tour in 2021 : an original present!

 With several Covid vaccines becoming available at the end of 2020 or early 2021, travel bans will finally be lifted and visiting France and Italy will be possible again, also for people from outside of Europe.

We at JoliSoleil are looking forward to showing you around again and "wine & dine" with you at all those special places!

At the end of this strange year we propose a Giftcard as a present for your family and friends and/or for the businesses you work with.

A Giftcard can be in any amount of $'s or Euro's and will NEVER expire.

On JoliSoleil Wine tours Europe (Euro's) go here.

And on JoliSoleil Wine tours USA ($'s) go here.

For now stay safe and let us meet (again) in 2021 !

Some independent wine growers in Alsace recently invested in new tasting facilities

The wine route

Launched in 1953, the Alsace Wine Route is one of the oldest wine routes in France.
It offers visitors a wide range of activities related to wine and the vineyard all year round.

 The wine route winds 170km (110 miles) from the north to the south of the region, passing through 70 wine-growing villages, renowned for being some of the most beautiful villages in the Alsace.
We are talking about Eguisheim, Kaysersberg, Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, Andlau, Obernai just to name a few.

The Alsace Wine Route is also a popular gathering place. From April to October, villages organise wine and harvest festivals in turn. Folklore entertainment, processions and wine-tastings take place all day long, and even at night, in a lively andfriendly atmosphere.

Some modern tasting facilities of independent wineries

It makes sense that wine cooperations were and are able to join forces and invest in modern tasting facilities. But also a couple of independent wineries have invested in new facilities in recent years.

Schlumberger
Schlumberger:is established since 1810. Nowadays, there are two generations working side by side. Alain Beydon-Schlumberger, 6th generation and Séverine and Thomas Schlumberger, 7th generation. Their vineyard is unique in Alsace : 140 hectares hectares with 70 classified as Grands Cru : Kitterlé, Saering and Spiegel.

Schlumberger tasting room facade

When I take you for a visit, we can enjoy their new tasting facilities and their old wine cave.
If there is time enough we can also take a walk in their vineyards.

Schlumberger tasting bar

Joseph Cattin
In 1978, Jacques and Jean-Marie, grandsons of Joseph Cattin, took over the family-owned Estate; Jacques, as the manager and Jean- Marie running the vineyard operations. Jacques began to modernize the Cattin Winery; a new dynamic was created. In 25 years, means of production completely transformed and the vineyard has been spread over 60 hectares.

Entrance to cave at Cattin

In 2007, Jacques Junior, joined the company after having studied engineering in agronomy and winemaking. In collaboration with his father, Jacques Cattin Senior, Jacques junior took charge of the wine-making and the financial department. His wife, Anaïs, graduated from a prestigious business school, and with strong experience toward international commerce, she joined the company in 2012. She is currently responsible for the international sales department.

Downstairs tasting room at Cattin

At Cattin we can also visit the cave and then taste their wines either in a new tasting room or in their wine bar upstairs, where we can also eat something..

Upstairs wine bar at Cattin

Pierre Gassmann
Rolly-Gassmann is a Domaine like no one else. It is located to Rorschwihr, a sleepy village on the northern rim of Haut-Rhin. Rolly-Gassmann offers no wines from Grand Grands Cru terroirs, but from a set of very good Lieux-dits such as Silberberg, Muenchreben and Plaenzerreben. The vineyards are located in Rorschwihr and the neighbouring Rodern and Bergheim and exhibit large geological differences. However, at Rolly-Gassmann it is the varieties rather than the terroirs that are in focus.

View from Gassmann terrace (part of building also on the left

Rolly-Gassmann has a unique style. The wines are small masterpieces with very good definition. They all carry the signature of Rolly-Gassmann, a certain shameless, velvety sweetness. The fruit is rich and Rolly-Gassmann manages to balance the fruit with a vibrant acidity to form seductive wines that melt on the palate.

Display of rocks to be found in Alsace soils

Gassmanns tasting room on top of his enourmous new construction is worth a visit just for the architecture. The terrace outside and the views are extraordinairie!

Inside tasting space from Rolly Gassmann

Alsatian wine tasting in an American wine club

On one of my last trips of 2018 I was touring with some American wine lovers that are members of an enthusiastic local wine club.

We visited Karcher, J.B. Adam, Schoffit and Domaine Weinbach.

At each stop they bought wines and had them all shipped by the USA Wine Club (me ) to the USA.

On a recent wine club evening in the USA, my contactperson Melinda had prepared a great "Alsatian" dinner and presented all her Alsatian wines to the club members.

The written information about these Alsatian wines presented to the club by Melinda, was amazing. I asked her if I could show her work to all of my JoliSoleil website members and luckily she agreed. Here is the first page:

The whole document (pdf) is under "HOME" Members: Wine Club USA on the Jolisoleil website 

Great job, Melinda. Thanks for sharing !

P.S. If you are living in the USA and want to ship wines directly from Alsace to your home and taste them in your club, then have a look at our Web / Wine shop or mail me.

Costs of French wine property per hectare (ha) in different regions in 2017

With a big thanks to iDEALwine and Safer:

En 2017, le prix des vignes de toutes les catégories de vins ont progressé :

• +2,3% pour les AOP
• +4,2% pour les AOP hors Champagne (en Champagne, le gain est plus modeste : +0,8%)
• +8,1% pour les eaux-de-vie
• +3% pour les hors AOP

La hausse générale est le fruit de plusieurs bassins régionaux :

• +7,2% en Alsace
• +5,5% dans le Rhône (ici, presque toutes les appellations progressent, y compris les plus réputées)
• +4,9% en Bourgogne-Beaujolais-Savoie-Jura (les grands et premiers crus bourguignons poursuivent leur envolée)
• +3,8% en Val de Loire-Centre (due en grande partie à Sancerre et Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil)
• +3,1% en Bordeaux-Aquitaine (du fait des appellations bordelaises les plus prestigieuses, Pomerol, Saint-Estèphe, Saint-Emilion)
• +0,8% en Champagne (une hausse modérée du fait d’un repli de la Côte des Blancs)
• +8,1% en Charentes-Cognac (du fait des exportations record en 2017)

La valeur du patrimoine foncier viticole AOP (69,4 milliards d’euros, +2,3%) est concentrée à 86% dans trois bassins qui ne couvrent pourtant que 45% des surfaces : la Champagne, qui représente à elle seule 55% de la valeur du total, plus de 38M€ (et seulement 7% des surfaces plantées), devant Bordeaux (12,7M€, +18%) (pour 28% des surfaces) et le bassin Bourgogne-Beaujolais-Savoie-Jura (8,8 7M€), pour 10% des surfaces.

Entre 1997 et 2017, le prix moyen national des vignes AOP a été multiplié par 2,5 (en valeur constante).  Le premier facteur d’augmentation du prix des vignes reste la baisse des taux d’intérêts, associé à une augmentation du revenu viticole. Le prix des vignes hors AOP, qui avait nettement diminué entre 2000 et 2010, remonte depuis 2010. Une remontée qui peut s’expliquer en partie par le dynamisme du Languedoc sur ce segment (qui représente 70% des surfaces hors AOP) et aussi par l’arrachage et la replantation de cépages plus qualitatifs.

LE PRIX MOYEN DES VIGNES DES PRINCIPALES APPELLATIONS EN 2017

La méthodologie choisie tend à lisser l’évolution des prix, en éliminant les transactions les plus élevées et les transactions les moins élevées.

A Bordeaux

(prix d’un hectare de vigne, évolution par rapport à l’année précédente)

Pauillac : 2 000 000 €/ha1 (-0,79%)
Saint-Estèphe : 450 000 €/ha (+17,49%)
Saint-Julien : 1 200 000  €/ha (-0,79%)
Moulis : 80 000 €/ha (-0,7%)
Listrac : 75 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Pessac-Léognan :  450 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Sauternes : 30 000 €/ha (-15%)
Pomerol : 1 500 000 €/ha (+14,5%)
Saint-Emilion : 250 000 €/ha (+7,85%)
Fronsac : 30 000 €/ha (-15%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations de Bordeaux

En Bourgogne

Les grands crus : 6 000 000 €/ha (+8%)
Les premiers crus blancs : 1 536 000 €/ha (+4,1%)
Les premiers crus rouges : 650 000 €/ha (+2,3%)
Chablis : 164 000 €/ha (+4,99%)
Chablis premier cru : 350 000 €/ha (+0,3%)
Mâcon blanc : 65 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Pouilly-Fuissé : 240 000 €/ha (-0,8%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations de Bourgogne

En Champagne

Côte des Blancs : 1 472 200 €/ha (-4,7%)
Côte d’Epernay, Grande Montagne : 1 188 900 €/ha (-0,19%)
Autres régions (Marne) : 1 040 000 €/ha (+1,17%)
Aube : 1 004 100 €/ha (+2,52%)

Plus d’informations sur les régions de Champagne

Dans le Rhône

Saint-Joseph : 120 000 €/ha (+9%)
Hermitage : 1 100 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Cornas : 450 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Crozes-Hermitage : 120 000 €/ha (+8,21%)
Châteauneuf-du-Pape : 405 000 €/ha (+3%)
Gigondas : 180 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Vacqueyras : 90 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Ventoux : 20 000 €/ha (+10,5%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations du Rhône

Dans la Loire

Sancerre : 160 000 €/ha (+9,44%)
Pouilly-Fumé : 155 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Bourgueil : 20 000 €/ha (1%)
Chinon : 22 000 €/ha (-1%)
Montlouis-sur-Loire : 9 000 €/ha (+11,1%)
Vouvray : 21 000 (-1%)
Saumur : 14 000 €/ha (+2,9%)
Touraine : 8 000 €/ha (-1,2%)
Anjou : 14 000 €/ha (+6,87%)
Saumur (Maine-et-Loire) : 19 000 €/ha (-1%)
Saumur-Champigny : 58 000 €/ha (0%) (un chiffre qui ne prend pas en compte le rachat du Clos Rougeard par Martin et Olivier Bouygues en 2017, ce qui traduit des choix méthodologiques spécifiques.)
Muscadet : 10 000 €/ha (-1%)
Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine : 12 000 €/ha (-0,8%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations de Loire

En Alsace

Alsace (Bas-Rhin) : 106 000 €/ha (+6,1%)
Alsace (Haut-Rhin) : 153 600 €/ha (+6,7%)

Plus d’informations sur les régions d’Alsace

Dans le Jura

Arbois : 36 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Château-Chalon : 55 000 €/ha (-0,7%)
Côtes du Jura : 27 000 €/ha (+3%)
L’Etoile : 23 000 €/ha (+3,6%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations du Jura

Dans le Sud-Ouest

Jurançon : 40 000 €/ha (-0,7%)
Madiran (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) : 15 000 €/ha (-0,7%)
Madiran (Hautes-Pyrénées) : 18 000 €/ha (-0,5%)
Madiran (Gers) : 16 000 €/ha (-0,6%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations du Sud-Ouest

Dans le Languedoc -Roussillon

Fitou : 11 000 €/ha (-0,9%)
Languedoc – Pic Saint-Loup : 40 000 €/ha (+4,44%)
Languedoc – Terrasses du Larzac : 20 000 €/ha (+16,96%)
Saint-Chinian : 12 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Faugères : 16 000 €/ha (-0,6%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations du Languedoc-Roussillon

En Provence

Cassis : 100 000 €/ha (-0,8%)
Bellet : 245 000 €/ha (-0,8%)

Plus d’informations sur les appellations de Provence

En Corse

Calvi : 18 000 €/ha (-28,6%)
Patrimonio et Coteaux du Cap Corse : 40 000 €/ha (-0,7%)
Ajaccio : 25 000 €/ha (+23,8%)
Vin de Corse (Figari, Sartène, Porto-Vecchio) : 25 000 €/ha (-0,8%)

1 Prix moyen (€ constants /ha) ; variation 2017/2016. Source : Safer

So per bottle you would pay the same as you would pay at the winemaker in France or Italy?

The best wines from for example Alsace shipped to the USA

Americans can now (re-)order wines from Alsace, Burgundy and Tuscany from their home. We take care of all duties and custom papers. The wines will be delivered by UPS or FedEx on your doorstep. For some wines this is the ONLY way to get them in the USA as they might not be imported in your country.

Is it not expensive?

Shipping wines from France to the USA has become easy and affordable now!
You can order the selected wines in our Store in boxes of 6. Of course there are shipping costs but as the wines are not consumed in France or Italy, you do NOT pay the 20% French (TVA) or Italian taxes on the bottle. Keeping this tax advantage in mind: the shipping price for 6 bottles already drops to about Euro 16,= per bottle instead of +/- Euro 21,= (including all insurances). BUT if you ship a total of 5 boxes (30 bottles) or more OF ANY wine/winery in this shop, your net shipping costs drop to +/- Euro 5,= (or less) per bottle. So per bottle you pay about the same as you would pay at the winemaker in France or Italy: your tax advantage pays for the shipping!

Visit our shop today!

How about a boat tour ... in Colmar and do a wine tasting?

Possibility to join luxury Alsace tour in May 2018

Although JoliSoleil offers mostly private tours, some of our customers ask us for the possibility to share a tour or join an existing tour group.

On a Notice Board page on our Website we post possibilities to join an existing group.

We have for May in Alsace:​

​

An English speaking (American) couple plans a 4 day Luxury Wine and Food tour in Alsace.

​

Period (options):

​

1) May 16-19

2) May  9 -12

3) May 23-26

​

Language spoken on this tour will be English

​

The tour consists of:

• tastings at  7 wineries,
• 3 lunches (normal),
• 3 dinners (1 Michelin starred including wines)
• All transport except for the morning of day 3.

​

A more detailed program description is available on request.

​

​

Price:

​

Euro 810,= per person

​

Interested ? Then please mail to combinetour@jolisoleil.com

​

2018 - another year has begun.

All the special wine glasses are washed and put away for the next special occasion. The year 2018 has really begun. That does not mean that there are no more wine glasses at hand of course.
They are our more our standard day to day glasses that can be used for lots of different wines and last but not least are not to vulnerable.

Being in the wine touring business for some years now means lots of contacts with winemakers. We follow their activities and we talk with them about the weather often.
It is interesting to be "around" so to speak, when there are hail storms in spring in Burgundy or Alsace or like in the beginning of 2017 to witness the frost periods after some mild weeks in March which already woke up nature.
Fascinating and scary to see how winemakers in for example the freezing Volnay area in Burgundy made hay fires at night trying to save the buds. In other parts they use fuel stoves.
Still damages in Chablis for example and here and there even in Alsace.

Another thing I remember very vividly were the hot summers of 2003, 2009 and for example the summer of 2015. I remember touring at 40+ C and more in 2015 with the airco at full blast in my car. I remember nature gasping for water. The grape vines still looked healthy but their maturing grapes were  sometimes still a bit small.  I remember talking to wine makers being happy and a bit worried at the same time. As they are not allowed to irrigate, the root system of their vines had adapted to all of that dryness. They went deep even in granite soil. But ...it has to rain at some time....

Most wine makers left the leaves growing on the branches, sticking out, so they would protect the grapes  from too much sun, like a parasol. In other years they might have pruned them to get sun on the grapes. These are decisions you can only make once per season. You cannot glue the protecting leaves back on.
Some biodynamic wine makers even sprayed camomile tea over the plants to relax them. Yes, it works for humans and it also works for plants.

Finally, at the end of August it did rain....Not too much...; and then after a couple of days some more. Ideal !!! Just what the grapes needed to survive, grow a bit more and further mature. Big smiles on all the wine makers faces. In Alsace this became a great year for Pinot Noir but also for other grape variaties. The results in Burgundy and Tuscany were also great.

What will 2018 bring? We already had some snow at the end of 2017. And then lots of rain and floodings in the first week of the new year. Temperatures are still mild.
We will follow the weather forecasts on TV every day again. We will also be looking outside on our 2018 tours and "feel the weather" and of course discuss the weather lots of times, sipping a glass.
Fun !!!

Seasons Greetings

Checking out some (older) wine tour photos - memory lane

Created with flickr slideshow.

Our JoliSoleil USA Wine Club is open

On Facebook the shop is here : https://www.facebook.com/jswineclub/shop/?rt=19

JS-USA-Wine-Club in the spotlight this week: "Louis Sipp - Grand Cru Kirchberg Riesling 2014"

Appellation Grand Cru Kirchberg Riesling 2014 - box of 6
Locality The Kirchberg hill at Ribeauvillé. Classified as Grand Cru by a ruling of 1975
Tips for Consuming Will accompany any dish which goes well with a white wine which is both dry and ample like: shellfish and crustaceans, fish in sauce, river fish, white meat, hard cheese, goat cheese... It will also work well throughout an entire meal.
Price Box of 6: Euro 120,00
Remember this is the price charged at the winery, but without taxes so you have earned 20%
Handling, shipping and insurance for a box of 6 are Euro 126,= or Euro 21,= per bottle
Keeping the tax advantage in mind: the shipping price drops under Euro 20,= per bottle.

About the Wine maker
Created in the 1920s, the winery Domaine Louis Sipp is nowadays one of the most famous wineries of Alsace (3 stars in the Bettane & Desseauve wine guide).
With a 40 hectares vineyard certified as organic winegrowing since 2008 and located on the historical hills of Ribeauvillé, Louis Sipp winery produces a large range of wines that reflecting the outstanding geologic diversity (Hagel, Steinacker, Grossberg, Rotenberg, Muehlforst, Trottacker, Hagenau, Ribeauvillé).
The winery is known for the softness of the Grands Crus Kirchberg de Ribeauvillé and Osterberg white wines, but also for the quality of their sweet white wines ("Vendanges Tardives" and "Sélections de Grains Nobles").