The Society's Vin d'Alsace 2008

Produced for The Wine Society by Hugel, this is a blend of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Sylvaner.

Top-class producer, entry-level wine, but a good one. Not overly rich, but aromatic and refreshing. A good introduction to Alsace wine, but lacks the character of the individual grapes.

Like the bottle says, it would indeed make a good 'house white', but I wish it was a pound or two cheaper.

Hugel

The Society's Vin d'Alsace 2008

Alsace, France

The Wine Society

£7.95

3/5

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Alsace Gewurztraminer 2008

Another result from the current Sainsbury's Taste the Difference sale. Produced by the ever-reliable Cave de Turckheim, this delivers rich, floral flavour, full mouthfeel and a crisp freshness.

I think Gewurztraminer is great - it's so different from other white grapes. I could understand if it's not your cup of tea, it has a very unique character, but you have to respect it. This is a really good example for this price range.

Cave de Turckheim

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Gewurztraminer 2008

Alsace, France

Sainsbury's

£5.09 (£7.64)

3/5

Cave de Turckheim "Brand" Gewurztraminer Grand Cru 2007

The price of this has crept up significantly since the 2005 vintage, but it is still worth every penny.

2007 was an exceptional vintage for Alsace, and I needed an impressive white to display the merits of white wine to a visiting red-loving friend of mine.

I think it did the trick. It had concentrated floral aromas, super-velvety texture and a lovely rich, complex palate. I wasn't tasting it side by side with the 2005, but from what I can recollect the 2007 may have been slightly lighter and more elegant.

Cave de Turckheim

"Brand" Gerwuztraminer Grand Cru 2007

Alsace, France

The Grape Shop

£15.45

4/5

Cave de Turckheim "Brand" Gewurztraminer Grand Cru 2005

This wine is fabulous.  We had it the other night with Fushsia Dunlop's General Tso's chicken.  Fuchsia is one of my personal cooking heroes.

I am going to break from tradition a bit here and use my dinner companion's tasting notes, as they are far more descriptive that anything I could come up with.  I think I'm pretty good at gauging whether a wine is good or not.  As for picking out individual flavours and things, well there are other more talented people than me.

"Fresh cut, under ripe cantaloupe melon, that is still a bit green", (I think these apply to the nose), and  "honeysuckle".  As for the palate, I can chip in with this:  this is a Grand Cru wine, so imagine a "normal" Gewurz and triple the concentration.  It's like drinking flower juice, with a bit of an oily texture.  My  dinner companions reckoned it had a bit of residual sugar, but I think they are mistaking aromatics for sugar, which is easy to do with Alsatian wine.  I felt it was quite dry, although I could well be dead wrong about the sugar part.

As for the finish - "white raisin", "slightly burnt caramel - like when you make it at home and leave it on the heat just a minute too long", "bitter" and "apricot".  Sounds about right, except I've never made caramel at home before.  By the way, Duncan is single and his number is....

I got this from a shop by Clapham Junction called The Grape Shop.  A few comments about it in a previous post here.  

Overall a fantastic wine and great bargain.  The Grape Shop also stocks a Grand Cru Reisling from the same producer.  It's pretty safe to say I'm going to be buying it.

Cave de Turckheim

"Brand" Gerwuztraminer Grand Cru 2005

Alsace, France

The Grape Shop

£13

4/5

Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Émile 2001

(as part of a fine wine tasting)

I was looking forward to trying this wine, being what I guess could be called a "premium" wine from Alsace, having a few years of bottle age and being of a very good vintage.

It had a very powerful lime and kerosene-scented nose, which I've grown to love in Riesling. On the palate it had great acidity and citrusy notes. I got the feeling that this wine could age for, well ages. It didn't taste like it was 8 years old, but that's the first 8 year old Riesling I've had. I guess what I mean to say is that I couldn't detect any "secondary" aging characteristics in it, which means I either don't know what to look for or the wine simply needs more time to show these (probably a bit of both). If the latter applies then it's a testament to the aging potential of that wine (and vintage).

The food match was crab meat - and it was spot on.

Trimbach
Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Émile 2001
Alsace, France
Widely available (£25 - £30 / bottle)
4/5

Cave de Beblenheim Pinot Gris Réserve 2007

I'm a big fan of Alsatian wine, and Alsatian Pinot Gris is no exception. For the uninitiated, the Pinot Gris grape is the same grape as Pinot Grigio, which you may know from the mega litres of Italian plonk produced with it. However, the difference between a French Pinot Gris and an Italian Pinot Grigio is like night and day. That's not to say all Pinot Grigio is bad, it's not, but there is a big difference in style here.

Where Pinot Grigio is a pale, crisp, light and usually very dry wine, Pinot Gris can be deep yellow, round, fat and off-dry. It's hard to believe they are the same grape. I think all Alsatian whites have a similar style, regardless of the grape variety. Alsace, unlike the rest of France, labels their wine by grape variety. Try a Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Blanc or a blended Vin d'Alsace from Alsace, and you'll find that they all have similar characteristics, and are totally different than their new world (or other European) counterparts. I really believe that terrior is just as important, if not more important, than grape variety when determining a wine's character. People are too obsessed with grape varieties, and I think that they should start looking beyond that and into what country/region really excites them.

Enough of the lecture. This particular wine is made by the co-op Cave de Beblenheim. I can't really tell if it's only made for Waitrose, or what makes it a "Réserve", but no matter. It's sometimes hard to tell with these wines if they are off-dry (i.e. a bit of residual sugar) or just very aromatic, but I think in this case there is a bit of sweetness going on, which is actually very pleasant, especially for drinking with spicy food. This is the primary role of these wines in my home, and they do it very well.

Regarding the price, I think I got it on offer for around £6, and it goes for about £8 normally.

Cave de Beblenheim
Pinot Gris Réserve 2007
Alsace AC, France
Waitrose
£6 (£8)
3.5/5

La Cave de Turckheim Gewürztraminer 2007

If you've never had a Gewurztraminer before, this is a good one to try.  Forget about any preconceptions you have about white wine, this will change all that.  The nose is usually described as "lychees", but I can't remember the last time I ate a lychee fruit, so I'll stick with "floral", which I think describes it best.  It really does smell like flowers.  It also has a rich flavour that may make you think it's sweet, but is in fact quite dry.

This is produced by a co-op in Alsace, France which has to be one of my favourite wine regions.  I love the wines of this region, especially for their food-matching ability.  If you like this, you should also give these other Alsace varietials a try: Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, or blends thereof.

La Cave de Turckheim

Gewurztraminer
Waitrose
£7.99

3/5

Bruno Sorg Cremant d'Alsace Brut NV

I popped into St. John in Spitalfields to have a look at their lunch menu, and instead stayed for a glass of this lovely Alsatian sparkler. I liked it enough to buy a bottle from the shop.

I'm a big fan of Alsatian wines to begin with, and was longing to try a Cremant from the region for a while now, and this was the first one I've seen available by the bottle in a shop.

It was well-received around the table, and I'll definitely be trying more. It's not as complex as Champagne, but it's a great aperitif and is very nice with food.

Bruno Sorg
Cremant d'Alsace Brut NV
Alsace, France
St. John Bread and Wine (Spitalfields)
~£12
3/5