2010 Crémant d'Alsace, Jean-Claude Buecher

Crémant sells better and is becoming increasingly important for Alsace. The quality is increased by less use of Pinot Gris and Auxerrois for the benefit of Chardonnay and, not least, the Pinot Noir. Nowadays, you often see the vintage on the bottle as well as the dates of degorging. More serious. Even tastier. And still as ridiculously cheap.

2010 Crémant d'Alsace from Jean-Claude Buecher in Wettolsheim offers hazelnuts, orange marmalade, sponge cake and strawberries on the nose. The palate is rich, full and harmonious with wonderfuly firm acids, perfect mousse and velvety fruit in the finish. The dosage is 6 grams/liter, and the grapes are Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and a splash Auxerrois. Degorged in March 2014. Price (2014): €7.90.

2012 Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl, Zind-Humbrecht

Clos Windsbuhl is one of the jewels of Zind-Humbrechts crown. It is located high above Hunawihr, next to the forest edge and along the bike path that connects Hunawihr with Riquewihr. The micro climate is cool, and the bedrock is is pure limestone, muschelkalk. Here the grapes ripen slowly, and regardless of whether the grape is Riesling, Gewurztraminer or Pinot Gris,  the wines has exemplary acid, complexity and structure. But why have the wine sold in Sweden to 50% of the price for direct sales at the winery?

2012 Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl from Zind-Humbrecht in Turckheim has a fairly light, greenish-yellow color. The aroma is complex and delicious with almonds, white raisins, pineapple, honey, and a clean and pleasing tone of forest mushrooms. The 43-year-old vines provides a deep and dense palate with fresh and high acidity, fine tannins, a hint of bitterness and prefect balance despite 36.5 grams of residual sugar per liter. Price (2014): €46 (but 239 SEK in Sweden).

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2007 Muscat, André Rohrer

Mittelbergheim is one of France's most beautiful villages, situated on a south-facing slope just south of the town of Barr. In the village there are producers with completely different style; Gilg makes wines with volume and a little sweetness, Rietsch is experimenting with natural wines, Rieffel does strictly classical wines, while André Rohrer makes wines that are dry. Very dry!

2007 Muscat from André Rohrer in Mittelbergheim has a bright greenish-yellow color. The scent is fresh, complex and intense with lemon, mint candies, wet gravel and orange flowers. The flavor is barely medium-bodied and bone dry with wonderfully ripe fruit, pure fine acids, a slight astringency and the long finish is supported by an absolutely pure acidity. Who says that Muscat does not gain from cellaring? Price (2008): € 5.

2010 Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg, Becker

Grand Cru Schlossberg is the largest of the 51 Grands Crus of Alsace. The area is about 80 hectares, divided into two parts, with the majority stretching from the village of Kaysersberg to village of Kientzheim. Schlossberg is oriented due south, and the thin, thin layer of soil is readily warmed up by the sun, at the same time as most of the rainwater is rapidly drained. In years with naturally high acidity in the wines, which in 2008, 2010 and 2012 thes naturally generosity of the terroir is combined with a freshness and texture rarely achieved during warm years like 2009 and 2011

2010 Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg from Becker in Zellenberg has a deep yellow color. The nose is big and fruity with notes of orange, pineapple, acacia and mineral. The flavor is quite supple and clean with a wonderfully lively acidity that embeds the generous fruit, while there is a tantalizing saltiness in the finish. A really, really good wine from a reliable producer. Price (2014) € 16.00.

Alsace wines from green grapes such as Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Sylvaner and others normally carries the grape variety on the label. But this presupposes that the wine is white. If the color deviates from the standard, it merely meets the requirements to be sold as Vin d'Alsace grape but without grape designation. Since some years, Domaine Loew makes a true rosé of Sylvaner by allowing the skins to be present during the fermentation. Then the alcohol out extracts red/blue colored anthocyanins from the skins, enough for the wine to be become discolored in the legal sense. 


Premieres Vendanges de Marguerite from Caroline and Etienne Loew in Westhoffen has a bright pale red color. The fragrance bursts with strawberry, raspberry and forest honey. The taste is light and tangy, with an acidity as of cranberries with a nice berry fruit, and a small roughness in the completely dry aftertaste. A wine that is not only made ​​of organic grapes, but is a genuine Vin Biologique that has been vinified with a minimum of intervention. Fun! Price (2014): € 8.90.

2005 Crémant Paradoxe, Jean-Claude Buecher

Jean-Claude Buecher makes only one type of wine: Crémant d'Alsace. Born into a family of wine growers in the late 1950s, he soon became an orphan. But the mother and teenage children chose to fight on as independent producers, against all odds. And when Jean-Claude in 1980 married Sylviane, also from Wettolsheim, the acreage increased to an economically sustainable level. The strategy - complete specialization - was staked out.

2005 Crémant Paradoxe from Jean-Claude Buecher in Wettolsheim has a greenish yellow color. The nose is very expressive with citrus, mineral, green apples, brioche and nuts. Intense, complex and very tight palate with lovely fruit, salinity and a clean, deliciously chiseled out finished. Completely dry. Stored over eight years sur lattes. Just amazing! price (2014): €13.10.

2011 Sylvaner Vieille Vigne, Bruno Sorg

Asia represents a huge market for wine. As the purchasing power is rising in countries like China and Vietnam, while Hong Kong (yes, I know it is a part of China ...) and Singapore will be – if possible – more open to western gastronomic influences, more wine will be consumed. In Singapore, Australian wines certainly dominates, but people like Etienne Hugel and Christian Beyer works intensively on the Asian markets. No wonder, for Alsace wines are versatile and can be combined with all kinds of Asian food. Rather neutral wines work best, for example those based on the too often neglected and overlooked Sylvaner.

2011 Sylvaner Vieille Vigne from Bruno Sorg in Eguisheim has a rich aroma of pineapple, chocolate and fresh, chopped oregano. The taste has significantly punch with generous fruit, vigorous acidity and a tiny, little hop-style bitterness in the balanced, almost dry aftertaste (vintage 2012 is bone dry). Perfect for a fish soup Laksa style. Ridiculously cheap. Price (2014): € 5.00.