April 9-11
We arrived at our bed and breakfast (which is also a wine producer) in St. Hippolyte late on Monday night and went straight to bed. With two full days in Alsace, France, I was promised some time to rest and I (mostly) got that. We found out about Alsace from watching the documentary “Somm, Into the Bottle” on Netflix which is about sommeliers, wine and wine regions. It sounds boring, but it’s actually done really well and very enjoyable to watch.
Alsace is an interesting region for a few reasons. First of all, they produce really delicious Rieslings. Dry Rieslings. Second, I find it interesting because the area borders Germany and Switzerland and over the centuries has alternated between German and French control. So the area reflects both cultures.
Our first stop in wine tasting was Sipp Mack which Michael claims to have found on the interwebs. It was just a small shop a few towns over from St. Hippolyte. The guy who did our tasting was great. He spoke English well which made it very easy to do the tasting and he was very friendly on top of that. Apparently he had spent 9 months in Traverse City, Michigain, working at a cherry farm in the early 80’s, which is a fun coincidence. Plus the wines were delicious.
The Sipp Mack tasting guy pointed us to Riquewihr for our next stop. The town was just like the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast.
We popped into Famille Hugel for some more delicious Rieslings. The wines were good, but the town was the real show stopper. We grabbed some macaroons and a bottle and headed off to our next stop.
That next stop was Paul Blanck which also had delicious whites and a great story surrounding their family tree and the history of the winery.
Next we grabbed a baguette, some charcuterie and cheese and headed back to our bed and breakfast. It was still relatively early and we were going to just snack a bit while watching a movie and calling it an early night. Before that, however, we had a tasting at our bed and breakfast (remember I told you it was also a wine producer).
Sylvie Fahrer & Fils is the winery and the wine was pretty good. The cool thing about the tasting, however, was the communication method. Everyone in this area speaks French. The second language for most is German, and then a lot of people speak English as well. Sylvie speaks German and French which makes a descriptive wine tasting tough. But another couple visiting from Eastern Germany spoke German and English and became translators. It was actually a fun way to do the tasting and was a great excuse to chat with the Germans.
The Greatest Showman and a bottle Hermitage Syrah that we’d picked up from a wine shop made the evening really great. If you haven’t seen that movie, it is a really fun one to see.
Then this morning we went for runs through the vineyards which was beautiful and hard. Hard because it has been a long time since I’ve been for a run and Michael is coming off that pesky marathon. But it’s time to get back into it.
How about this swan we saw on the run?
Afterwards we took a trip up to Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg which is the local castle. Built in the 12th century, it was destroyed and then rebuilt in the 15th century then destroyed again in the 17th century before it was abandoned. Then in the early 1900’s, the castle was fully restored by German emperor Wilhelm II. Similar to the Alsace region, the castle was transferred from one country to another over the centuries depending on who was in power.
These are the really pretty stoves. As early as the Middle Ages, stoves were used in this region for heating purposes. They would surround the stoves with detailed ceramic tiles.
Plus just some random cool castle stuff:
Interestingly, someone we spoke with mentioned that there are a lot of wild boars in the area. Too many. Michael asked the standard US question: do many people hunt them? The man’s response: No, we don’t hunt. We don’t have guns here like you do in the United States. Touché.
But best of all were the views from the high vantage point.
After the castle, we grabbed lunch in a nearby town before heading to our last Alsace tasting at Maison Trimbach. This is the winery from the documentary that made Michael so geeked to come visit Alsace. Maison Trimbach’s wine maker appeared in the documentary and had a really neat experience with his son opening up a 1962 bottle of wine together. The (younger) wines we tasted stood up to the high expectations we’d set for them. Plus, the wine maker came into the tasting room and I snapped this creepy stalker picture.
We didn’t speak with him (Michael was way too star struck), but we were excited to see him and bought a few bottles.
Now we’re back in our bed and breakfast looking at another movie night and early bedtime. See? I am getting some relaxation here!