Alsace Grand Cru tours in 2021 - 2022

The Alsace Grand Cru tours (in het Nederlands vindt u deze tekst hier)

​

The history of wine making in Alsace goes back to old Roman times. Castles dot the landscape, villages, churches, vineyards and wines, cuisine and traditions all make Alsace a unique and magical European experience.

​

Did you know that apart from Japan, the french Alsace region has the most Michelin * restaurants in the world? Did you know that there are recognized over 800 soil types in Alsace? Given the fact that most winemakers in Alsace make their wines in the wine field and not in the wine cellar that results in an enormous variety in smells and flavors. It also means that the wine year really make a difference.

Did you know that the great white grand cru wines often have an enormous aging potential?

​

On this tour you will find it all out ! We offer you the biggest names and visit wineries like Zind Humbrecht, Deiss,Trimbach, Hugel, etc.

You will visit the Confrerie St Etienne at the Chateau de Kientzheim with its history and with a wine cellar with over 65.000 bottles going back to the 1800's.

​

We have our lunches and dinners in the finest restaurants often Michelin starred.

The Alsace Grand Cru tour is your chance to visit and taste the very best Alsace has to offer.

​

What you will do and see

​

We will start with an introduction and overview. You will learn about the grand cru system. Understand what happens and what it means when winemakers are not allowed to irrigate their fields.

You will taste from dry to sweet; compare young and old.

Each day you will be in a different area. We will be in "bas rhin" in the north and "haut rhin" in the south, but because of the changing shape and presence of the Vosges mountains, there are a lot of different micro-climates within those areas. The micro climates all leave their trace and signature in the wines.

​

Our lunches and dinners

​

As stated we have selected some great restaurants. Apart from their rating in the Michelin guide they are also chosen for their location. On your tour we do not want to waste time on unnecessary driving. Wines during lunches and dinners are for your own expense, except for the last evening dinner where everything is included.

​

Who will be on the tour?

​

You will meet wine lovers that "know their wines" and also have been in other wine areas. But you will also meet "beginners" and people that want to get to know Alsace and its culinary highlights. Considering age: there will be  younger and older people from diferent backgrounds.

In other words the groups are mixed, but the thing everybody has in common is wanting to "wine and dine" on a high level, get to know the area and meet other people that also want to share that same experience.

​

Stay in a selection of fine hotels

​

Depending on the tour we sometimes choose one hotel for all our tour guests. On other tours we use three of the best hotels in Colmar that  are on walking distcance from each other. That means that you book the room(s) you want yourself.

The tour bus will always pick you up and drop you off at your place. On some evenings we can walk to the restaurant and back to the hotel.

​

Costs

​

The tour rate per person is: Euro 995,=

Once your Alsace Grand Cru Wine Tour begins you can relax knowing that the tour rate covers absolutely everything besides your hotel and breakfast expenses.

So: guides, all lunches and dinners, all tasting wines, excursions, all entrance fees, tasting fees, tips, taxes and gratuities are dealt with. Tipping is neither required nor expected.

Last but not least: you are not obliged to buy any wines on the tour but "if" you do, we can assist you in shipping those wines.

​

Résumée - Alsace Grand Cru tour from Colmar 

• 4 nights, 3 tour days 
• Exclusive touring: minimum of 4 couples or 8 people, maximum 8 couples or 16 people
• Air conditioned mini-bus with driver 
• 7 tastings, more than 60 wines, compare many grand cru's 
• 3 lunches, 3 gourmet dinners (one with Michelin *) 
• Stay in one of three of our preselected hotels in Colmar 
• Tour rate per person: Euro 995,,=,  
• including all tour transport, all tastings, 3 lunches, 3 dinners 
• excl. hotel and breakfasts
• We can assist you in shipping your wines 
• Your tour host : drs. J. Pieter Smits

​

Please check our Event planning for available tour dates​ in 2021 and 2022.

For Alsace book here!

​

Biodynamic winemakers - complete freaks ?

Weird people ?
If I told you that a biodynamic winemaker takes the flower heads of yarrow, fermented in a stag's bladder, and applies them to compost, or that he ferments oak bark in the skull of a domestic animal, you would think he was a bit nuts, wouldn't you? That's why people don't shout about it - it's just too weird.

But such processes seem to work. Some of the world's greatest wine producers are already making wine biodynamically, and increasing numbers are dabbling in it, from California to Australia, Chile to South Africa, Italy to France - especially France.

What is biodynamic winemaking?
So what exactly is biodynamic winemaking? Good question. Let me say that many winemakers who do it don't fully understand it. "It's like Japanese: if you jump straight into it, it's too esoteric, too strange," says Alsace biodynamic winemaker André Ostertag.
Another convert, Dominique Lafon, from the great Meursault estate of the same name, adds: "At first you can't believe the stories that you hear, but once you see for yourself what is going on in the vineyard, you are more ready to accept it."

The term "biodynamic" translates roughly from its Greek roots as meaning "working with life energies". Biodynamic wines are those made from grapes grown following the principles of biodynamic agriculture, stemming from a series of lectures delivered by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), linking man, the earth and the cosmos.
Steiner believed: "It is impossible to understand plant life without taking into account that everything on Earth is actually only a reflection of what is taking place in the cosmos." The biodynamic farmer thus sees the farm in the context of a wider pattern of lunar and cosmic rhythms. No synthetic fertilisers or pesticides are used here instead, they use a range of special preparations (the aforementioned oak bark, etc) to boost the productivity of the soil. These are diluted, then applied in homeopathic quantities determined by the position and influences of the sun, moon and stars.

The height of the moon, for example, is crucial to the planting cycle.
When the moon is descending, sap flows downwards and things don't grow as fast (including your hair, apparently - so it's a good time to get it cut), making this the best time to plant young vines. But that, of course, depends on where you are in the signs of the zodiac. I told you it was weird.
The days in the biodynamic agricultural calendar are divided up according to the signs of the zodiac. There are root days (earth signs - Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), leaf days (water signs - Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces), flower days (air signs - Gemini, Aquarius, Libra) and fruit days (fire signs - Leo, Sagittarius, Aries). If you plant your potatoes on a root day in a falling moon, you'll have a perfect crop - or something like that. This is organic farming with knobs on.
It sounds mysterious, I know, but grape growers who have embraced the system report great improvements in the health of their vineyards, while winemakers claim to produce cleaner, more vibrant wines.

Lafon, who first started experimenting with biodynamics more than 10 years ago, says: "You see better growth in the vineyard - longer shoots, with roots that go really deep. I saw a vineyard that was almost dead double its crop after being farmed biodynamically."
And he declares: "Our fruit is riper, more intense, and better balanced in terms of acidity, with a more even crop. And all of us have felt that there's more energy in the wines - in the whites, especially."

Alsace on the lead
There are more than 20 producers in Burgundy who are into biodynamics, but Alsace boasts more than anywhere else in the world. "I guess it's a question of geography - Steiner's influence along the Rhine," explains Ostertag, who first experimented with it in 1997.
He, too, saw a virused vineyard spring back to life with biodynamics. "I was so impressed, I had to try it," he says. "It became less and less strange as I went along, though I can't explain why it works. Even scientists don't understand how it works. It's not rational, and I'm a really rational person. I don't think about it too much, I just do it."

You'll have to do your homework to search out biodynamic producers - most don't exactly shout about it (it's a spiritual thing, rather than a marketing thing), and give no indication on the back labels. Those that do so open up another can of worms, as very few growers are certified biodynamic (Demeter, a certified trademark of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association, is the main certifying body in the UK).

You could always search out Frederic Grappe. He runs Dynamic Vines, the first wine supplier to concentrate on biodynamic wines. His name might be familiar to many in the industry - he was formerly head sommelier at both Orrery and Roussillon restaurants in London. He has about 70 biodynamic wines on his books, from 18 different producers - all French, except one from Spain. And, yes, his on-trade accounts are mostly top-end, so far.
Grappe says: "I feel that these wines really need to be explained, so I need passionate people buying them, with serious lists." That said, one of his biggest customers is a modest French bistro, La Trouvaille, off London's Carnaby Street, whose co-owner, Guillaume Siard, is now a huge fan of biodynamic wines and lists 85 of them on his 100-bin list.
The bistro didn't start out that way, however. "When we opened eight years ago," Siard says, "we specialised in wines from the South of France, but we realised that most of the wines that we had chosen for the list were made organically or biodynamically. I am drawn to wines that have pure flavours, a vibrancy, balance and authenticity - which these have. But you need to choose carefully. Just because the wines are organic and biodynamic doesn't mean they are good."
He does attempt to explain biodynamics on his list, but to keep things simple he marks each wine with an "N" for natural. He explains: "It's much easier that way, as some aren't certified organic or biodynamic, and some are."

Authentic
Grappe has lots of explaining to do, but most people get it, he says. "Restaurant wine buyers are becoming increasingly bored with the globalisation of wines - the lack of identity and character," he believes. "Biodynamic wines are just so much more authentic - closer to the area they come from."
This is what drew him to biodynamic wines in the first place. "My palate was just moving closer and closer to these kinds of wines," he explains. "It's not just about the wines, either, it's about the people behind it. And there are more and more winemakers moving in this direction. In France, they were seen as complete freaks up until five years ago. Some people still think that."

You can't really blame them. Biodynamic winemaking has provoked a fair amount of scepticism, especially in the scientific community, who are put off by its rather esoteric, cultish image. And no full studies have been conducted yet, which would help its wider acceptance.

Nobody can say for sure how biodynamics contributes to these wines. There aren't any non-biodynamic wines made by the same producers in the same way to compare them against, and the practice has picked up only in the past 10 years.
Biodynamic agriculture is tricky and precise, and requires an enormous commitment from the winemaker, but the fact remains that some of the best vineyards - and vegetable gardens - in the world are biodynamic.

Based on an article in Caterer & Hotelkeeper

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").