Strasbourg On My Mind!

Oi Strasbourg Oi Strasbourg! The weather wasn’t the best that day but it didn’t matter, we are not made out of sugar. It was our first time in Strasbourg but we didn’t have any major plans for the visit, only one must visit to this famous wine bar/store. Wandering the whole day in the old town of Strasbourg was the best way to experience the city.

Pork + Potatoes. Simple as that.

Actually it was Valentine’s Day when we were in Strasbourg. So quite a day we chose for our trip! We did not have a dinner reservation for our stay in Strasbourg and we found out that it was a major mistake. All the nice restaurants were full and many restaurant staff just gave us quick laugh on our desperate attempts on getting some decent dinner. Luckily one of the restaurants, Argentoratum, called us back like 5pm that one reservation cancelled, Heureka, team Pull & Pour is going to get some good ‘Chow’ after all!

Boeuf Tartare. Make it yourself.

We sailed through some traditional Escargots (snails), Beef Tartar, Pork and some vino of course. Before moving on, we finished the dinner with some strong Marc de Gewürztraminer (local grappa), which Daniel did not finish… Our group was the only over 2 person table in the whole restaurant that evening. But we had fun and we were loud, hopefully no one’s late night plans were not ruined by our rumble. If you are up to some traditional Alsatian cuisine, try to book a table in Argentoratum. Good service and good food, Pull&Pour team recommends.

Welcome to Paradise!!!!

The best part of our stay in Strasbourg for sure was this amazing wine shop, Terres à Vin, in the center of Strasbourg. First we visited the place during the afternoon wandering. Time went by and we spent almost 2 hours in this rather small wine cellar just digging around the shop’s selection which by the way was astonishing. Every time we took another look at the wines, we found something new to explore. Terres à Vin is also a small wine bar and a bistro that serves about 20 wines by the glass and you can just go down to the cellar to pick any wine you desire and they serve it to you upstairs for just 10 euro extra corkage fee, great deal! The food was simple but great quality and exclusively sourced from local producers. We find ourselves back in the bar after our dinner and we shared some cheeses with some funky wines.

Underground Cellar of Pure Gold!!

Who Wants?!

J’en Veux!!! (meaning “I want”) is a cuvée from the Jura mastermind JF Ganevat whose original style of wine-making and funky wines have always created attention among the wine geeks. His wine style fluctuates between the traditional Jura and Burgundy wines with some funky twist. This cuvee was a field blend of 18 grapes (white and red) that are picked up manually and destemmed berry by berry producing only 900 liters annually. The wine was freaking amazing juice, one of the best wines we ever tasted and what do you think about the label?!

We had a great stay in Strasbourg and in Alsace but now the trip has come to its end and it was time to head back to Dijon. We navigated back carrying a lot of great memories, the trunk full of wine and some extremely skinny wallets.

Back on Track

Hey all,

Our sincere apologies that the blog has been quite for a moment, but we are back on track again.

School work has been really intense and we could not dedicate the time that we would like to our blog.

We are working on our next post, and it should be available until next Tuesday.

Until that, make sure to fill up your glasses with some wine and enjoy your weekend.

Cheers!

Pork & More Riesling – Alsace Dream Part II

Here we are back in track again with the writing, feeling like Ernest Hemingway here but sober. Anyway, after the awesome Hugel visit feeling happy and a bit tipsy, we had 30 minutes to get to our second winery appointment in Alsace, Josmeyer, the pioneer of biodynamic wines in the region. Our goal was to experience two different kind of producers in the region, a large one like Hugel and a smaller one with a slightly more artisan approach to winemaking.

Josmeyer as wine producer has a long history in Alsace. The house was established in 1854 by Aloyse Meyer and now it is managed by Aloyse’s grandson Jean Meyer. Josmeyer owns and manages about 28 hectares (20% Grand Cru) of fully certified biodynamic vineyards that are divided to 70 different plots near Wintzenheim area. The house produces mainly white wines from all the famous Alsatian grapes with also a small focus on red wine made of Pinot Noir.

Josmeyer’s premises were located in a small town of Wintzenheim, right next to the wine capital of Alsace, Colmar, where we are going to spend the first night of our road trip, convenient ah? We found the sign for the winery and entered to this small courtyard. We knew the artistic aspect of Josmeyer but never thought it could be something like this. The courtyard was full of these different colorful modern art sculptures and also the tasting room was covered with various art items and paintings.

The winery was quite busy with the bottling process but before the tasting, we had a quick change to take a peek at Josmeyer’s cellars which were full of these large and funky egg shaped barrels. The whole Meyer family members are kind of artists themselves and for example they draw with chalk the characteristics of every vintage to every barrel.

Typical Alsatian barrel Josmeyer style

The Lineup

As Josmeyer is way smaller than Hugel, we did not do as wide range of tasting as we did in Hugel but we had a nice chance to experience the Josmeyer style and compare the differences between the Alsatian white grapes from an artisan bio-dynamic producer’s perspective. We started with basic blend and continued with single variety cuvees: Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris.

Art Art Art

The style of Josmeyer wines is pure and aromatic with a focus on dry (ish) white wines that still expresses beautiful fruit. We finished the tasting with a marvelous Grand Cru Hengst Riesling from 2001 vintage. Superb wine to end the tasting. The artistic side of Josmeyer is not only be seen in the winery but also in the wines. All the different cuvees have a label design that has been done by a well-known artist. Great way to differentiate the wines from others. If you appreciate art and high quality wines, make sure to book a visit at Josmeyer.

Pork Knuckle

A day full of travelling and wine tasting, we were graving for some traditional Alsatian (German?) cuisine. We spent the first night in the countryside in an idyllic and romantic (Too romantic!) town called Colmar. The town was relatively dead in February due to the low season but we managed to find a cozy little bistro called Wistub Brenner which was full of people, a sign of good restaurant. We blended in with the locals and we filled our stomachs with some snails seared in Riesling and with some traditional Alsatian dishes, Choucroute and a HUGE pork knuckle.

Le Choucroute d’Alsace

We washed down the heavy dishes with some Riesling (of course!) and shared a great Pinot Noir from one of the most famous producers in Alsace, Marcel Deiss. The atmosphere in the restaurant was relaxed, warm and loud, just the way we like it. After the dinner, we placed our feet to our pockets and rolled down back to the hotel where the night continued with a mission to clear some stock that we purchased earlier from the wineries. Prost!

 

 

Next stop, Strasbourg, stay tuned for the Part 3 of our roadtrip…

Pork & Riesling – The Alsace Dream Part I

We had two days off from our studies in the middle of February so we decided to take a break from the winter Burgundy and discover some other nearby wine region. We packed our small Korean girlfriend (Kia=car) and headed towards the German side of France, Alsace. Three days of Riesling and Pork and Sauerkraut… Wunderbar!

Alsace map –  Wine Folly

Alsace is the northern most region of France that specializes in still white wine and mainly gathered its reputation on producing great and age worthy dry or sweet white wines. Comparing to the German white wines, Alsatian wines traditionally have more structure and power. We’ve made two winery appointments (of course!) to Hugel & Fils in Riquewihr and to Josmeyer in Wintzenheim.

When we arrived in Riquewihr, we were quickly absorbed by the welcoming environment that surrounded us. It is a small, charming town, that has few great restaurants (even Michelin Stars), and a typical Alsatian architecture, with visible German influence, giving the place a medieval atmosphere. This little town of around 1200 inhabitants, surprisingly packs about 2 million tourists in a year!!!!

German achitecture in the streets of Riquewihr

After a little walk on the village it was time for our first winery appointment so we headed towards Hugel’s premises, after all we were getting thirsty at that time.

“Johnny” Hugel

We were welcomed by Loïc, Hugel’s host sommelier, and he gave us a brief explanation about the history of the winery before we started the tasting. Hugel is one of the pioneering families of wine growing in Alsace, dating back to 17th century. Nowadays the total production of the company is around 1,2 million bottles annually, with a significant share going to exports, reaching over 100 countries worldwide.

Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer and Riesling

 

The wines started to come and as our host was pouring, he explained about the differences between each soil type of Alsace and tried to link it to the style of wine we were tasting. The tasting began with the entry level wines, and quality was increasing as corks were popped. The tasting included all the possible Alsatian whites and reds and we finished with few older vintage sweet wines like Late Harvest and SGN (selection de grains nobles). After tasting around 18 different bottles and spending  2-3 hours throwing jokes with Loïc, we felt privileged and happy for the really warm and knowledgeable service. If you are planning to go to Alsace don’t hesitate to visit Riquewihr and make an appointment to Hugel. Great experience guaranteed!

Before leaving the town to Wintzenheim, we stopped on the road to check the landscape. The village is surrounded by beautiful vineyards, with curving slopes which are southeast faced, providing a perfect environment for the grape growing.

Vineyards in Riquewihr. Southeast faced slopes at the back

Our next stop will be one of the pioneers in biodynamic viticulture in Alsace, Josmeyer. Follow us on our journey!!!