Our weekly newspaper about food, wine and life in Alsace, Burgundy & Tuscany. Stories via @AlsaceWines @drinkAlsace

Cam Sterns and Hallie Schafer bought a 1,900-square-foot home in Tuscany 14 years ago, expecting this to be the last place they’d move.

Winestein @ JSwinetours

Burgundy impressions

Newsletter Christmas 2014

Almost Christmas  
With still some visits to Strasbourg and Colmar and some tours to the Christmas markets in Kaysersberg, Equisheim and Riquewihr ahead, we are slowly moving to the end of the year.

Touring in 2014
We have done a lot of great tours in Alsace and Tuscany this year.
For some Alsace tours we have picked up people all the way in Basel in Switzerland and at Basel airport. Logically we stayed south on those tour days, as there are many interesting wineries to be found in the south “Haut Rhin” area, like Schlumberger and Agathe Bursin for example and we do not want to lose too much time just driving.

Bachelor parties
A couple of bachelor parties this year were great fun. On one of them we also did a boat ride on a canal near Colmar. This gave the people time to let us talk to the future groom while tasting wine and to be honest some beer too.

On another bachelor tour we visited the “Confrérie Saint Etienne” and tasted 5 Grand Cru wines of the year 2004. This was the year the groom met his bride to be.

Sadly we missed the celebration festivities of the 400th year in continuous production of our friends the family of Jean Baptiste Adam in May, as we were touring in Tuscany.

Tuscany
It was great doing two tours (in spring and early summer) in Tuscany. We cherish the private tastings at Laura Gray from Il Palazzone and with Paola from Siro Pacenti.

We were privileged to get to know the owner of Ristorante Guidoriccio in Siena (this man knows his Italian wines ….) and Gianfranco at “Il Leccio” in Saint Angelo in Colle. So many great Brunello’s came by that afternoon.

Nice guests, nice local people, great cooks, wonderful times.

It was very special to see Princess Coralia Pignatelli again in Castell in Villa, after 11 years.
In those days, 11 years ago, yours truly had just moved to France and visited the area with a Dutch Wine club. This time we did a private tasting invited in her house which was quite special as Madame understandably wants to keep her privacy.

We organized a group dinner on the premises later in the year.
We also think back on our visits at for example Gagliole and the great Chianti tasting plus lunch we enjoyed at their sister house and vineyards in Panzano.

The wine year 2014
The year 2014 saw an early spring with lots of sunshine in France and Italy. The winter had been wet with little snow. This led to landslides and problems in Tuscany.

Sadly, in July and especially August the temperatures were under normal and we had lots of rain, even in Tuscany. September and October were sunny and dry again. The weather stayed great until deep in November.

A couple of hail storms in Alsace and especially Burgundy brought lots of damage. The quality of the grapes and harvest from for example Riesling in Alsace was still good. But a big problem this year was the arrival of the Japanese Suzuki fly. It attacked the reddish skinned grapes like Pinot Noir but also Gewurztraminer, making the grapes go bad in only a few hours. Changes in harvest planning, stress, and low yields resulted.

For Sangiovese in Italy producing the great Brunello’s, it will not be a great year we heard. For Olive oil the production this year will be even worse. Because of the strange weather patterns yields are very low to practically zero. Let us hope 2015 will be more normal.

New in 2014: JoliSoleil city and genealogy tours
Although we started focusing on wine tours a couple of years ago, more and more times people asked us to do something different, helping them explore their family roots in Alsace. This was especially the case on day tours. This made us decide to add for example “City Tours” to the program with visits to Strasbourg and Colmar but also to smaller villages like Equisheim, Kaysersberg, Riquewihr and Turckheim.

Another question came two times from two different families living in the United States but with ancestors in Alsace. On one occasion we traced back a Jewish family history and visited some places that were mentioned in a family reunion some years ago. In another case we traced back two families that have lived near Reinhardsmunster and Epfig for hundreds of years. We found their names in old books and cemetery’s. But we can also find people with the name still living here today!

As Genealogy is a hobby of Terry Smits and she has access to several genealogy databases on the Internet, we will of course continue offering these special services for people that look for their roots and ancestors.

New in 2015: Burgundy tours
As wine lovers we visited Burgundy now and then over the years already of course. As driving to Beaune or Nuits St George is only a bit further then driving to Strasbourg from our farm near Gérardmer, we will take guests to Burgundy in 2015 also.

Like in Alsace and Tuscany we know our way. We took the time to visit and taste at smaller and relatively unknown wineries.

Very important is that we tried out lots of little restaurants. We think it is always a sport to find that spot that offers great quality for a good price. This means that like in Alsace we can add a great lunch and or dinner on a “one day tour” and offer the whole package still for a reasonable price.

We can also be of service now to wine & food lovers that would like to get to know Alsace and Burgundy in for example two or three days in one tour package with us.

And we will also go to Tuscany of course a couple of times in 2015. Those will only be more day tours for people that really want to wine and dine on an exquisite and connoisseur level.

Christmas 2014
At home we are working on some great Christmas dinners for family and friends. Each time we will pair two wines per course, making a selection from our favorite areas and private wine cellar.

We hope that all our guests and everybody that follows us will have a wonderful Christmas too.

We would love to meet you in 2015. And of course it would be great to see some of our relations back in another tour area in the coming year. Don't wait too long with your bookings.
We are only two people and with everything we do now, we are quite busy.

     

We wish everybody a prosperous and happy 2015 !

Cheers from Terry & Pieter Smits 

Kasteelwijnen

Book a room via Kasteelwijnen and book us for a tour or wine tasting!

"The most wonderful way to spend 2 days in Alsace!"

"My husband and I just recently toured the Alsace region of France with the help of Pieter and his company JoliSoleil.


We had the most amazing time visiting the most interesting wineries and tasting the most beautiful wines. Pieter knew exactly what to do and where to go and even suggested the best wines to taste and how to taste them. For example, we were tasting the same grape from the same year but from a different parcel of land so that we can taste the difference that terroir makes. We did the same thing with different vintages and even tasted the same exact wine from grapes just picked weeks apart. Amazing!!!!!



We learned so much! We also discovered that we really really LOVE Alsacian wines.

If you haven't been to Alsace you MUST go! You will meet the most amazing people, experience the most charming French villages, eat delicious food and drink fabulous wine!!!
Let Pieter do all the planning and have a great time!"

Thanks Rina and Dave for this great reference :)

Terry's Book Review - The Wines of Alsace

The 'Bible' of Alsace wines.

Tom Stevenson

In the book "The Wines of Alsace", Tom Stevenson has profiled 300 producers and every style of Alsace wine, and has also analysed all 118 wine villages, 51 grands crus, 84 lieux-dits, 28 clos and 4 wine-producing chateaux.

Encyclopedia like accuracy of facts, yet engaging detail and atmosphere as in storytelling. A must have book for those serious about learning Alsace wines.

To order The Wines of Alsace click here. 

Alsace Pinot Gris

Pinot Gris is an opulent Alsatian white wine, full bodied, rich, round and with a long finish. It has vegetable aroma, often slightly smoky.

Pinot Gris can be paired with most dishes but it is excellent with foie gras, game, white meats, roasts, liver, kidneys and last but not least: cheese dishes (cheese soufflés).

Luxury Stay At Château Hattonchâtel

History Brief

This castle was originally built in the 9th century by Hatto, the bishop of Verdon, in 860. Durring WWI Hattonchâtel was destroyed. The castle was restored in the 16th century by American Belle Skinner, using parts of the original castle. The first phase of completion was in 1923 and lasted until 1928. Restoration was conducted by French architect Jacquelin Henry. The decor and furnishings are remaining from the 1920's era.

The back story of this lovely castle is fascinating. Many adults still remember visiting when they were children, because for a time the castle served as a summer camp for inner city children from Paris. Unfortunately it was this, and a bit of over zealous cleaning, that drastically faded the painting over the fireplace mantel. It was then closed from the public for 40 years, until being privately purchased and reopened to visitors  as a hotel and very romantic wedding location. It was listed as a monument historique in France in 1986.

Instruments from the extensive collection in the music room are now on display at Yale University.

Belle Skinner

Belle Skinner came from one of the wealthiest families in America in her day. She was born in Skinnerville, Massachusetts. Her family owned Skinner & Son's silk and satin manufacturing.

Belle restored Château Hattonchâtel starting in 1919. It was an amazing and expensive undertaking. Tunnels were found during the restoration going under the castle to the church and other locations. Some 400 gold coins from the Roman era were found in the tunnels, known as, "Miss Skinner's Pot of Gold". Some of these went missing, around the same time as Bell Skinner's untimely death in her Paris flat. Some speculate these missing gold coins had something to do with her death, also perhaps the architect; still for for the record, she died of natural causes. As for some reason he was blocking her visiting the castle during final restoration. Still her death is recorded as a result of pneumonia.

Belle Skinner

1866-1928

Visit Château Hattonchâtel

You can schedule a 1 day stay Hattonchâtel, or a whole week. Often those who only originally ask for one day, ask the next morning for two more additional days.

From the castle you have a 35 kilometer view of the surrounding area. Day trips to interesting places in the surrounding area can be planned, or you may wish to just stay on the grounds and relax.

A local chef can prepare dinner for you, and after dinner you may choose to retire to the library where the world glob opens up and inside special spirits are available for you, no charge.

Château Hattonchâtel has been featured in several wedding magazines, it has been the vacation spot of choice from Beacon St., Boston and the cast of American television show "Cheers". Of interest to some we have been assured by the owner that any ghosts in the castle are friendly.

Staying at Château Hattonchâtel is an experience, for those who want to feel as if they have truly traveled back in time to the 1920's era when Hattonchâtel was restored.

You may completely customize your experience, you only need to ask.

To book a wine tasting with Pieter Smits click here.

To book your stay at Château Hattonchâtel click here.

One of our favourite Alsace Sylvaners

One of our favourite Alsace Sylvaners comes from Agathe Bursin near Soulzmatt.

Agathe allows the grapes to grow on a great terroir and treats them as kings.

Sylvaner

Fresh, light and easy to drink, Sylvaner offers a discreetly fruity or floral bouquet with citrus or white flowers notes. Left aside from the qualitative perspective after the war, still too often branded with a bad image, it is however a wine with an excellent quality price ratio.

Sylvaner may accompany platters of seafood, fish, dishes containing eggs, sausages, hors d'œuvres, quiches and also onion pie’s.

One of our favourite Pinot Noirs ...

One of our favourite Alsace Pinot Noirs comes from Jean-Paul Schmitt near Scherwiller. The estate is officially certified for organic production by Ecocert.

Visit a cheese farm and pair cheese with wines

Visit a Munster factory or farm with JoliSoleil Alsace Guided Tours
Learn which Alsace wines go with that kind of cheese.

2013

As we are writing this article we are already going to the second half of January. How time flies.
We are preparing some great tours for customers visiting us from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Japan.

More diversity
In 2012 we added visits to cheese farms, castles and some of the old villages to our programm. Next to that we can take our guests to for example the “Volerie des Aigles”.

Another addition is "cooking with a chef". This is the possibility to do a cooking class in a hotel or restaurant under the supervision of a real french chef (sometimes Michelin starred). In a small group people can prepare their evening dinner and select the wines to go with that.
If you are visiting with a group of friends or as colleagues of a company, then is definitively something unique and unforgetable.

6 Day - 5 Night Luxury Tour Paris/Alsace
As people visiting us form far away countries like America and Japan often want to see more of France then just Alsace, as of 2013 we offer a 6 Day/5 Night Luxury Tour Paris - Alsace
We collect our guests at the Paris airport of arrival and from then on look after them untill they return to Paris 6 days later.

In Paris we stay in great 4 star hotels in areas of Paris that are interesting and worthwhile even at night.
A private driver will take our guests to "must see" sites like the Eifel tower and the Louvre museum, but we go one step further. In a dialogue with our clients we prepare their specific visits before traveling. Maybe they want to see the "thinker statue" by Rodin or a copy of the statue of Liberty in the "Jardin de Luxembourg".

After a couple of days in Paris the tour includes 1st class tickets by TGV (fast train) to Strasbourg. After a 2 1/2 hour ride they will be picked up by one of our drivers at the trainstation.
People can stay either in a hotel in the city of Strasbourg itself or we will book them a nice hotel in a small Alsatian village in the middle of the wine area.
In Alsace people have a choice. We can focus on the wine and food for a couple of days. This means visiting many different wineries, tasting their wines and really getting to know the different styles of producing wines. We can also add other visits in the programm like visiting old villages and castles for example.

The wines
We have not tasted all Alsace wines yet. Nor have we visited each winery. Apart from trips with our guests we go out on our own. For example if we have read about a wine or winery. We also go to exhibitions and tastings where we can meet a lot of wine makers.
When in contact with potential clients for a tour we of course try to find out what they would want. Dry or sweet wines or both? Some people give us a name of a winery they want to visit. We try to go there as much as possible. If it is a new place for us, so much for the better.

In 2012 we for example visited the wineries of Valentin Zusslin and Emile Beyer for the first time.

Working like this for us no two tasting days are the same.

Differences in taste
People are often surprised by the differences in taste of a wine made from the same grape. They are even more surprised if the diiferent tasting wines come from one wine maker. We explain them the differences between an east and west slope. And for example vulcanic, chalk or granite soils.
Differences in taste are not something magical but often the result of know how and hard work.

In 2012 we visisted Agathe Bursin for example. We tasted two Sylvaners, one growing on a South West slope and one on a South East slope. The soil in both cases is more or less the same. Now the grapes on the South-East slope get more hours of sunshine then the grapes on the South West slope. This results in grapes with more sugar and of course you can taste that.

Diversity of groups
In Mai 2012 we got a visit of a group of management students from the University of Florence in Italy. In 2 1/2 days we did some 10 different tastings. We also visited the Confrerie Saint Etienne. A visit to the castle and their cellars where more then 60.000 bottles are kept going back to 1750, is always worthwhile.

In August we got a visit from a big family visiting Alsace from the U.S.. In this family reunion some people did not see each other in years. They wanted more then just tasting wines. So we organized a visit to the castle of Haut Koenigsbourg and the cities of Riquewihr and Colmar for them.

In the first contacts by email or phone we often try to get an idea of the age of pour contact person(s). In this case my contact was a woman of 88. She was in a marvelous condition; better then some other family members 20 years younger.

More and more we also get visits from people of China (Hong Kong). Apart from tasting the wines, they also want to see the many old cities and for example visit a cheese farm.
Because of all these demands we now offer these kind of tours and visits as a standard choice.

Our communication
On this English Blog we write about Alsace and Alsace wines for our English readers. OnFacebook we mostly write in English also.
It is our choice not to do too many indepth tasting descriptions, because many readers can not get a hold of all those specific wines in their country anyway. We try to let people get a feel of the area and the food and the wines in general.

On each tour we take photos. Some of them are published on Facebook and Flickr but many stay private.

Our standard offers for 2013 are:
-One day tour Alsace
-Three day tour Alsace
-Five day luxury tour Alsace
-Six day luxury tour Paris/Alsace
-Tastings Gerardmer
-Arrangement castle of Hattonchatel

Please click here for more information in pdf, or click here to fill in an inquiry form.
We are always open for your special demands.

See you in Alsace or where ever you would want to try some Alsace wines with us, in 2013.
Cheers !!!

Wine tastings near Gerardmer

What to expect

We will taste 6-8 wines. 1 ½  hours is the time needed for a complete tasting

We start with teaching you about wine tastings in general: how do I hold the glass? how do I look at the wine? What am I looking for in color and consistency? What smells am I experiencing and how do I describe them? What is the taste of the wine, how do I describe the taste?

You will receive sample forms to write down your experiences with the wine and what you notice about the wine. It helps you organize your thoughts and experience a something to keep to remember the details of this experience.

The first wine we will taste is a Crémant. A "champagne like" wine from the  Alsace selection of wines.

White wines are the main wines produced in Alsace. We will taste a Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner and one or two Rieslings. This is typically dry wines.

Then we will move to a Muscat, Gewurztraminer, and  a Pinot Gris which are a  little sweeter, but can also be found to be very dry.

Then we taste a red Pinot Noir.

Working our way up through the white wines to the red, from the lighter tones to the more pronounced, we will take you through the wines of Alsace.

If you like we can also compare the Alsace wines to a Burgundy wines. You'll taste what differs in the regions starting with the same grape varieties but with different kinds of soils and style of wine making in France. This produce the different end flavors in the wines. Soil and climate are very important factors in the expression of flavors.

                                      

J.S. Wine Tours 1750 Vosges Farm, La Forge, France. 

 If you want we can add some prestige wines or exclusive wines to the tasting, for an additional price, and will be taught to taste the difference in terms of quality and flavor of these wines. We will teach you why some wines are more expensive with this addition to the wine list and teach you to how taste the difference!

Food and wine tasting combinations

If you are holding a tasting at the La Forge farm you will receive a piece of French bread from our local artisan pastry shop to go with the tasting. You can also request cheese for a nominal additional investment.

Food and wine belong together, so pairing the right wine with food is an important factor in wine tasting, that can also be added to this experience. In combination with a certain dish, you will learn to appreciate the wines different nuances and why a certain wine combined with a certain dish enhances the experience of both.

If you choose to taste the wines along with a dinner it will be the ultimate combination. A typical Alsatian dish like: Coq au Riesling, Garnie Choucroute, Tarte Flambe, Kugelkopf or Baeckofe, are some examples to choose from.

If you have a special dish request just let us know what it is and we will do our best to make it happen for you! We can prepare the dish here, have the food brought in for you from a local chef, or we can reserve a restaurant where you can choose from the menu and select a dish that appeals to you, and then we will assist you in the selection of a wine to go with the dish of your choice. We are very flexible in our offering.

Where? 

1. During your holiday or conference time in Gerardmer it can be a fun afternoon or evening experience to spend some time tasting wines and stay in the city. In this case we will visit you at your location to do your tasting. We can arrange this with or without a dinner. 
2. The 'Grange' tasting room at La Forge. Grange is the French word which describes a barn which is attached to your house. This is where we have wine tastings in La Forge. 
3. If you would like to have a wine tasting in the La Forge area, but want a restaurant we have selected  "Le Chant Du Bois'  for a local wine tasting with food combination.
4. Alsace is a 1 ½ hour drive from the town of Gerardmer.  We can take you for a day on an Alsace wine tasting tour and we can add a fine dinning experience in addition to the tasting if you wish. 

Map of Gerardmer

Map of La Forge

Map of Alsace

Cheers! Look forward to your visit to Gerardmer!  

To contact J.S. Wine Tours with questions or to book your tour please click here

Introducing Terry Moren

We welcome Terry Moren to our team. 

Terry has a business degree in administration, marketing and communications. She comes to us from California with previous wine experience from Napa and the Central Valley. She will be assisting with blog posts, social marketing, as a tour guide and working with American travel agents for increased bookings.

"Alsace is a wonderful location for an unforgettable vacation. The wine villages are brimming with excitement and cheer as local artisans sell their finest wares and the smell of hot spiced wine now fills the air. At any time of year, you'll be seduced by the charm of the Alsace: its people, its food and its wines!" Terry Moren

We Welcome Working with Travel Agents from Around the World

We are happy to work with travel agents from all over the world. Apart from our standard trips and offers, we are happy to design something special for your clients.

To access the travel agents page click here.