📍 Alsace

Alsace is a wine region in eastern France, on the foothill slopes of the Vosges above the Rhine valley. The vineyards run in a strip about 120 km long and often less than 1 km wide, covering 119 communes in the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Most vines grow at 200–400 m.

The Vosges hold back the damp westerly winds, so Colmar gets about 1,800 hours of sunshine a year, and the vineyards receive only 500–650 mm of rain, against about 2,000 mm on the mountain tops. The faults of the Rhine Graben have created a mosaic of soils: granite, schist, sandstone, limestone, marl.

The AOC Alsace appellation was recognised in 1962; there are about 5,000 estates and roughly 15,000 ha of vineyards in production. Still white wines lead: Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot gris, Muscat, Sylvaner, Pinot blanc, Auxerrois. Red and rosé wines are made only from Pinot noir. Separately, there are 51 grands crus, sparkling Crémant d'Alsace (since 1976) and the terms vendanges tardives and sélection de grains nobles for late-harvest grapes.

Since 1972 the law has required Alsace wine to be bottled only within the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments themselves. The bottle is special too: the tall, slender flûte d'Alsace, whose shape is laid down in EU law.

Why it matters to you. The tall bottle for AOC Alsace is a rule, not a fashion. Crémant d'Alsace undergoes its second fermentation only in the bottle and rests on the lees for at least 9 months. Vendanges tardives and sélection de grains nobles come only from Gewürztraminer, Muscat, Pinot gris and Riesling. White wines are served at 4–10 °C.