Today we head on over to the incredible region of Alsace! Alsatian wines are truly a thing unto its own and one that every white wine lover definitely must know about, producing some incredibly rich, fruity and floral, really elegant wines. The region is also known for producing Cremant bubblies and also a good number of really complex eau-de-vie fruit brandies - and thus it's a region that deserves great recognition.

The wine and spirits making of Alsace is one that is incredibly special.

What's also particularly fascinating about the region is that much of its winemaking shares deep cultural similarities as that of Germany and Austria. Alsace itself is incredibly close by to the German and Austrian border, and itself was annexed from Germany in 1870, and thus much of the winemaking came from the same folks you'd find across the border today - a time when borders were far less definite. As such you'll find that Alsace produces wines and spirits that would be familiar to German wine and spirits making, and in particular stands apart from French winemaking in that its wines are varietal instead of blends.

And when headed over to Alsace, it is impossible not to talk about Wolfberger (pronounced Wulf-bear-zjay), a serious player in the region, and one that is also particularly fascinating. Wolfberger emerged, and remains as such, a cooperative formed in 1902 when the region faced an existential threat from the Phylloxera plague. As such the numerous growers and winemakers in Alsace decided it was best to band together to put up a united front. And indeed they would tide out the crisis and from then on continue to build upon their shared knowledge and passion for producing Alsatian wines and spirits. They would set up their cellars in Eguisheim, just south of Colmar, and Dambach-la-Ville - forming amongst the first cooperatives in Alsace, and would even together help to create the Cremant d'Alsace AOC. Today Wolfberger, with over 800 members in its cooperative, is not just known for one, but instead three different categories - wines, Cremant and eau-de-vie - owning some 10% of the vineyards of Alsace.

And if we're talking Alsace, we have to talk about Wolfberger.

Getting into the terroir that Wolfberger plays in, the cooperative spans 15 Grand Crus, with over 1,200 hectares of vines ranging from north to south of Alsace. Most of its vines reside around the Eguisheim area where Pinot Blanc and Riesling are its most dominant variety. The land here is mountainous and extremely steep, and can be characterised as having dark, stony soils that are heavily mineral rich, creating incredibly fertile soils that lead into the Thur river. Each harvest season, pickers have to work from top to bottom on these steep slopes with the help of harnesses and ropes, with the fruit collected and brought down on sledges. The region has a semi-continental climate - sunny, warm and dry - yet at the same time sheltered from oceanic influences as a result of the Vosges mountain ranges, also sporting some of the lowest rainfalls in France.

In the cellars, grapes are crushed and fed into over 300 vats differentiated by varietal and parcel of origin. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel vats, after which the wines are racked and fined to remove lees and improve clarity. The wines spend time in wooden barrels where importantly controlled oxygenation of the wines occur, and no malolactic fermentation is done so as to keep its freshness. Looking into the future, Wolfberger is also pretty commendable in its efforts to not just farm sustainably to protect the health of its vineyards, but also invests quite a bit into training the new generation of growers and winemakers from the region.

Today we're going to try two of Wolfberger's most popular wines, the Gewurztraminer and Riesling, both from the 2020 vintage. Both of these come from Grand Cru vineyards. Let's go!

PS. These were both tasted at the Wine Connection Singapore Wine Fair, and are available at Wine Connection as well!

Wine Review: Wolfberger Gewurztraminer Alsace Grand Cru Hatschbourg 2020

The Hatschbourg Grand Cru is located between the villages of Hattstatt and Voegtlinshoffen. The soils here are particularly heavy and deep, yet also very well-drained, and is thus used by Wolfberger to produce Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Riesling.

Tasting Notes 

Colour: Straw

Aroma: Huge floral and fruity scents of tinned lychees and roses, backed up by supple sweet notes of honey. This carries on to rose water, apricots and alittle bit of lime. It's incredibly aromatic with a great richness, almost like a potpourri.

Taste: It's rounded and rich on the palate, medium-bodied, giving the sweetness of scoops of honey and tinned fruit syrup. Here it remains incredibly fruity, with pears and lychees soaked in syrup or as a sort of fruit cordial. Some gentler notes of rose water as well. It's honeyed and fruity, with superb aromatics!

Finish: It's rich into the finish, carrying with it all those aromatics of roses and lychees, very much honeyed, syrupy and floral, and yet ends cleanly with great freshness.

My Thoughts

This was absolutely superb! Rich, honeyed, with well-integrated and naturalistic aromas and flavours of roses, lychees and an assortment of orchard fruits, this had a great almost-syrupy fuller bodied texture and at the same time was incredibly perfumed with great roundedness and a good amount of honeyed sweetness. This also came off super classy and elegant, where it showed great definition and expressiveness - it's not overly ripe or sweet, nor is it overly perfumed - it had all the hallmarks of a great Gewurztraminer (a wine that more folks really ought to know about, best known for its perfumed aromatics). And perhaps most ridiculous of all is that this comes in at under US$45 (or SGD$58) - it bears emphasising how great a value pick this is! 

Wine Review: Wolfberger Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Eichberg 2020

Here we have a Riesling from Wolfberger's Eichberg Grand Cru, situated closer to the winery's Eguisheim home, the terroir here can be characterised by lots of limestone, chalk and gravel, as well as having a dry and hot micro-climate. Here the precipitation is truly amongst the lowest in Colmar, and thus the fruits here tend to express great ripeness. The vineyards here produce both Riesling and Pinot Gris.

Tasting Notes 

Colour: Straw 

Aroma: It opens fresh and rustic with scents of hay, sweet lemons, and also a gentle muskiness of gooseberries and also some pears and green apples. It's bright and fresh, with a moderate richness.

Taste: A moderate richness here, it's alittle bit sweeter and rounder on the palate, with more honey here, filled in also with gooseberry jams and pear compote. With time there's more on citron marmalade and yellow Korean melons. There's just a light acidity here that's fairly gentle, and leans off dry.

Finish: Clean finish here, just alittle bit of honey and some lingering gooseberries. Still lightly dry here.

My Thoughts 

This Riesling feels alittle more dry and leaner, and at the same time this seems to expose more of the yellow and green fruits that drive the wines fruitiness without being particularly sweet. It's quite fresh with just a moderate richness here, and as it progresses, gradually becomes more dry. I find this rather aromatic and also more evocative than German Rieslings which I tend to find sweeter and more syrupy, with also less of these orchard and melon fruits. This is certainly cleaner and would work as a good wine for food pairings compared to other Rieslings.