Alsace Wines You Will Taste on a Colmar Wine Tour

Nine glasses in ten poured in Alsace are white, and the grape is written on the label. Before you book a wine tasting tour Colmar, here is what the three appellations mean, what a Grand Cru is, and what each tour here pours, or does not.

Three appellations, and why 90% is white

Alsace works with three appellations, and the CIVA, the region's wine council, sets them out. AOC Alsace covers the everyday wine of the region. AOC Crémant d'Alsace covers the sparkling wine. AOC Alsace Grand Cru covers the named hillside sites.

Ninety per cent of AOC Alsace wine is white, which tells you what your glass will hold most of the day. You will often meet all three appellations at one counter, from the same grower. A tasting usually climbs from the everyday wine to the grand cru, and your host will tell you which is which as you go.

What a Grand Cru is

There are 51 Alsace Grands Crus. Each is a delimited vineyard site on a hillside, and each became its own appellation in 2011, so the site's name goes on the label. Together they make 4% of Alsace production, which is why a grand cru costs more at the counter.

Four grapes are generally permitted in a Grand Cru: Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer. The villages the tours reach sit under several of them. Eguisheim has Eichberg and Pfersigberg; Riquewihr has Schoenenbourg and Sporen, and a Riquewihr wine tasting is the way to meet them in the glass. The tours stop in the villages, not on the slopes, so you see the crus from the lanes below.

The grapes you will be poured

Alsace labels its wine by grape, which is unusual in France and makes a tasting easy to follow. Seven names cover most of what you will see on a list. Four are grand-cru grapes; the other three are everyday Alsace, and you will usually meet them first.

• Riesling: a grand-cru grape and one of the four the CIVA names. No listing here promises it by name, so if you want one, ask when you arrive.
• Gewurztraminer: written without an umlaut on an Alsace label. The 4 Wonders small-group listing names it among the wines you can sample at its cave stop.
• Pinot Gris: the other grape the same listing names. It is a grand-cru grape, so it may appear at both ends of a tasting.
• Muscat: the fourth grand-cru grape. One reviewer of the private three-hour car tells you to try it.
• Sylvaner: an everyday Alsace grape, not permitted in a grand cru.
• Pinot Blanc: another everyday white, often early in a tasting.
• Pinot Noir: the one red grape on the list, and the red you are most likely to be offered here.

What the tours pour

This is the question the whole site turns on: the tasting is not always in the fare. Most tours put it in the price, and three do not. Read your tour's row before you book.

Domaine Gueth pours the most in one place: you choose seven organic wines from single-vineyard selections and compare two terroirs, in an hour, for $19. Muriel Gueth, who pours, is the seventh generation of winegrowers on the estate. For range across a day, the Ophorus full day stops at three wineries, where owners and winemakers pour.

Crémant d'Alsace, the sparkling one

Crémant d'Alsace is the region's sparkling wine, and it holds its own appellation beside AOC Alsace and the Grands Crus. No listing here promises one by name. Most growers make one, though, so if you want bubbles, say so at the start of your tasting rather than the end.

The same applies to anything you have come for. Every tasting here is poured by a person, and growers are used to the question. On a private day, tell the driver when you book, and the route can be built around the cellar that makes it.

How a tasting here runs

You stand or sit at a counter, a grower or a member of the family pours, and you are told what each wine is. Tastings on these tours last from under an hour to about 70 minutes: the Emblematic's cellar stop is 70 minutes, the ICONICS winery an hour, Domaine Gueth the whole hour including the cellar.

Eat first. The Ophorus listings warn that snacks are not usually served with a tasting in France, to keep the wine's flavour clean, and Alsace Safari does not allow food in the van. Domaine Gueth is the exception, with a pretzel and a few crackers. If you are driving yourself, you cannot taste and drive, which is the reason these tours exist.

Buying bottles and taking them home

You can buy at every cellar you visit, usually at the grower's own price. Domaine Gueth sells what you taste on site or delivers it to your home, which solves the suitcase problem. Nobody on these tours obliges you to buy.

If you are flying, check your airline's liquid and baggage allowance before you buy a case: bottles go in the hold, not the cabin. The villages the cellars sit in are on the wine villages page.

Wine questions

Where these facts come from

The three appellations, the 90% white figure, the 51 Grands Crus, the 2011 change and the four grand-cru grapes are the CIVA's own, published at vinsalsace.com. What each tour pours, and which grapes a listing or reviewer names, comes from the tour's own listing. The village crus are from Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, which lists Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Hunawihr.

Tours that pour these wines

Cellar tour & tasting of organic wines with a feminine touch

One hour in a family cellar at Gueberschwihr and seven organic wines; you get there yourself, by car or by bus.

From $19 per person

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Alsace Full Day Wine Tour from Colmar

Three winery tastings in three villages, time for lunch in one, eight seats, adults only, from the CGR cinema at 9:30am.

From $187 per person

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Alsace Half Day Wine Tour from Colmar

Two family wineries and two tastings in four hours from the CGR cinema; adults only, and no snacks with the wine.

From $114 per person

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