On the Road to Alsace

La Route Du Vin in Alsace, France, is lined with storybook villages and colorful half-timbered houses all nestled against the Vosges—a forested mountain range sprinkled with castles. For a wine-loving Jersey girl with only two days to spare, a visit to La Route promised to be an exercise in frustration.

I knew I couldn’t do the region justice with this brief diversion from my stay in Stuttgart, but honestly, what self-respecting wine geek would be so close to such a famous wine destination and not at least take a cursory look?

Vineyards spread like a tapestry over rolling hills of Alsace. With so little time and so many wines, I set my sights on Domaine Marc Tempé (known to some as the Bear of Alsace)—a producer I had heard about from my friend Cheryl Kenny who sold his wines in the D.C. area. She visited the Domaine last year and was so impressed that she sent me a bottle of his Pinot Blanc to whet my appetite for my own trip.

Before beginning my travels, I spoke with Marc’s U.S. importer but there was some question as to whether or not he would be in Alsace on the dates of my trip. I was instructed to stop by his wife’s wine shop in Colmar to inquire about a meeting or to just take a chance by knocking on the winery door in the little village of Zellenberg.

So we loaded up my friend Tom’s Chevrolet (yes you read that right) and headed out of Stuttgart for our home base in France—L’Auberge Alsacienne in Eguisheim, which according to our visitors’ guide is the perfect village “to evacuate the stress of modern life.”

Stay tuned for more posts—including a primer on Alsatian wines, how to entertain teenagers in this world famous wine region. And how we happened upon the Bear of Alsace.

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Tags: wine | France | vineyard

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