2011 Pinot Gris, Kientzler

Pinot Gris can be wonderful on the table. With its rich, full-bodied flavor and complex aroma the grape manages to match and balance the most kinds of food. But this requires that the wine has good acidity, moderate sweetness and is not too high in alcohol content. A producer who always manages to create gastronomic Pinot Gris is Kientzler, which houses just outside Ribeauvillé. But on the other hand, Kientzler succeed with just about everything. Always.

2011 Pinot Gris from Kientzler in Ribeauvillé have a pretty pale yellow color. The scent is youthful and fresh with hints of fresh apricots, orange, oregano and a touch of honey. The palate is medium bodied with a bit coarse mouthfeel, high but not aggressive acids and wonderfully ripe fruit that is long in the finish. So good! Price: € 9.

2007 Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg, Louis Sipp

The label holds the three words Finesse, Harmony, Authenticity. It's really three relevant epithets for the wines of the firm Louis Sipp. With high aspirations at all levels Etienne Sipp makes classic, firm and tasty wines from all grapes. But perhaps does the style turn out best for Riesling, where the cuvées range from the diehard Hagel, over the fresh Grand Cru Osterberg, the saturated Grand Cru Kirchberg to the generous and and plump Steinacker. Sipp has lovely wines for all tastes!

2007 Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg from Louis Sipp in Ribeauvillé is bright greenish yellow in color. The smell is, even after six years, remarkably young with lemon, herbs, acacia and star anise. The taste is barely medium-bodied with big, firm acidity and a clean, ripe fruitiness that fills out the palate into a harmonious whole. A classic wine from a calcareous soil that slopes gently toward the east. Price: € 18.

2002 Riesling Grand Cru Geisberg, Faller

Grand Cru Geisberg forms a steep amphitheater on the hillside north of Ribeauvillé. It is one of the very best vineyards in Alsace. But only Faller and Kientzler makes "pure" Riesling Grand Cru Geisberg. Trimbach blends his Geisberg with wine from Grand Cru Osterberg to make Cuvée Frederic Emile, and landowners Baldenbeck and the monastery in Ribeauvillé sell their grapes. At Faller, located on the main street Grand'Rue, you may always taste several vintages. Try them and select the one you like best!

2002 Riesling Grand Cru Geisberg from Faller in Ribeauvillé smells devine of ginger, apple pie, honey, white flowers, candied lemon and minerals. The taste is pure, silky but still tight and focused, with lots of fruit in the clean and dry aftertaste. A brilliant wine at its' peak. Price (2005): € 15.

2011 Rouge de Saint-Hippolyte, Cave de Ribeauvillé

The villages of Saint-Hippolyte and Rodern are well known for Pinot Noir. The vines grow on granite slopes above the villages where the land is unusually clayey to rest on granite. The warm earth and the exposure maks the grapes ripen perfectly. Not least in Rodern, several small producers make serious Pinot Noir ranging from rosé to powerful, oak aged reds. And every year in the month of July a Fêtes du Pinot Noir is held, a giant festival is held where wine flows, tartes flamées are eaten by the thousands and a Reine du Pinot Noir is elected.

2011 Rouge de Saint-Hippolyte from Cave de Ribeauvillé  has a well pigmented cherry red color. The fragrance is young and fruity with ripe cherries, plums, cranberries and a touch of dill. The flavor is barely medium-bodied with fine acidity, good volume of ripe fruit and just the right amount of tannins. A good wine from a big producer that rarely delivers anything interesting. Price: € 9.50.

2009 Gewurztraminer Nature'S, Louis Sipp

A few decades ago growers were struggling to get enough sugar in the grapes. Several factors contribute to the facts that the must has higher sugar content today. The climate is warmer, yields are lower and consumers will not accept wine from unripe grapes with green character. For Gewurztraminer this is often a problem. Many Gewurztraminers are considerably sweet, almost sticky, when bottled. But with only 3-4 years of cellaring the sugar integrates and the wine exhibit elegance and purity.

2009 Gewurztraminer Nature'S from Louis Sipp in Ribeauvillé has a restrained nose, with milk chocolate, orange, violet and pears. The flavor is rich and strikingly elegant, with supple fruit, a distinct but fully integrated sweetness and a minerality that gives the wine character and length. Price: € 10.

2008 Riesling Steinacker, Louis Sipp

It is easy to make the false assumption that a terroir in Alsace need to have an ancient history to produce good wines. However, only few lieux-dits formed after the last glaciation have a strong reputation. These are Herrenweg (notable farmed by Zind-Humbrecht), Clos des Capucins (the vineyard surrounding domaine Weinbach) and Steinacker (of Ribeauvillé). The wines from these soils offer may not be the most complex, but are full of pure pleasure.

2008 Riesling Steinacker from Louis Sipp in Ribeauvillé is medium golden yellow. It has a already a surprisingly developed, rich aroma with petrol, honey, oranges and yellow apples. The taste is medium-bodied with plenty of fruit, a fresh and clean acidity and a certain astringency of grapefruit peel in the finish. A charmer with many qualities. Price: €10.

1998 Riesling Clos Ste Hune, Trimbach

Sometimes the term "Wine of the Week" feels very inadequate. The wine of the year? The wine of a life-time? In any event, it is a precious gift to have the opportunity to drink one of the world's best wines. A wine for which the intellect is not enough, a wine full of emotions.

1998 Riesling Clos Ste Hune from Trimbach in Ribeauvillé is brilliant golden. Elegant aromas of almonds, petroleum and botrytis. Delicate taste with perfect balance, a velvety texture, and  hints arrack. Quite astonishing acids that are unique to Clos Ste Hune. Unusually bold and potent vintage. Superb! € 180.

2009 Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg, Kientzler

There are a few producers in Alsace - and perhaps in all of France - which only makes great wines.  Frome these few you will encounter nothing obscure, no ups-and-dows and just a natural vintage variation. However, you will find the personality and character in abundance. One of these magicians are Kientzler, who cultivates 10  ha in Ribeauvillé and Bergheim, with the Grands Crus Geisberg and Osterberg as top names. You can find the discrete domaine along the road to Bergheim, surrounded by vines.

2009 Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg from Kientzler in Ribeauvillé has medium yellow, blazing colour. The nose is a little stiff and restrained at the moment, but rich in minerals. Perfectly crafted  flavour with great structure, nice acidity and rich fruit hidden under layers of youthful fruit. This will become a great wine! Price: € 23.

2007 Pinot Blanc Auxerrois, Henry Fuchs

Auxerrois is not a grape you search out because of a characteristic aroma but primarily for a) its taste, and b) its usefulness. But although 7% of the Alsace vineyards are planted with this relative to Chardonnay, it may not be sold under its own name in Alsace and it is normally blended with, and sold as, Pinot Blanc. The structure of the taste is similar to a Chardonnay from Macon: relatively fat, moderate acidity and all in all a wine that matches all kinds of food, white meat as well as fish dishes. And many producers will testify that this as what they put on their own table, day after day.

2007 Pinot Blanc Auxerrois from Henry Fuchs in Ribeauvillé has a very floral, fresh and complex aroma of lilacs, peaches, walnuts, flint and Bassets Allsort. The taste has a very good attack, is dry and crisp, yet offers both substance and weight and a very pleasant salinity. A very good wine from a revived domaine! Price: €5.20

2007 Riesling Steinacker, Xavier Wymann

Located in the geological fracture zone, Ribeauvillé has a great variety of subsoil geologies. These range from the granite of St Ulrich, over sandstone, limestone and marl to the alluvial soils deposited a mere 15 000 years ago. This is were we find Steinacker, a stoney (quite logically), warm vineyard which yields ripe, open and early maturing Rieslings.

2007 Riesling Steinacker from Xavier Wymann has  an aroma of oranges, almonds, banana, licorice and anise. The taste is almost medium full, round, pleasant and honest with a fresh acidity on the finish. A good, no-nonsense drink. Price: € 6.80

1999 Riesling Grand Cru Kirchberg, Louis Sipp

The vintage 1999 is just as underrated as 2000 is overrated, at least for those of us that love firm, classic, pure, long-lived and velvety Riesling that make the heart beat. Etienne Sipp in Ribeauvillé makes nothing but excellent wines, with a fabulous ability to chisel out the most important feature of a great wine: balance.

1999 Riesling Grand Cru Kirchberg has a fully developed aroma of arrack, chalk, wild strawberries, turpentine, ripe apples and candied lemons. The taste is medium-bodied, fruity and clean, and the wine coats the mouth with sweetness without sugar and tartness without any bitterness. The finish is long, full of the Ribeauvillé minerality and really, really good. Price: € 14.50.

2004 Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg , Joggerst

Osterberg yields powerful, multi-dimensional wines with an abundance of the minerality so characteristic for Ribeauvillé.

2004 Riesling Grand Cru Osterberg from Joggerst has a yet restrained nose with smoke and loads of fruit. The taste has good attack, surprising power, perfect balance and a long, clean aftertaste with yummy, almost sandy minerality. Deserves its gold medal from Riesling du Monde 2006. Price: € 12,40.