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. On
Facebook 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 !!!
