Adventures in Wine Tasting

                        For those of you who find a fine glass of wine enjoyable, I hope that you find this Post the same.

                        For those of you who find a middle-of-the-road glass of wine totally acceptable, read on to discover some of the whys and wherefores of the more expensive vintages.

                        For those of you who, (like me one time!) cannot really tell if the wine has slightly ‘turned’ when the bottle is opened, read on just for the fun of it because I doubt if in this late term of life, we will ever be considered connoisseurs!

                        Our next Region of Discovery is just outside of Strasbourg, France…… it is called Alsace. The Alsatians are lucky that their collective existence is even being discussed here as these folks have been (figuratively and literally) torn limb-from-limb over the past two millennia. I’m afraid that even my “Cliff Notes” versions of the back-and-forth occupations, border haggles, and treaty oops’s would have you all screaming and running for cover. So, let’s just say that the most recent occurrence of this once commonplace phenomena was during WWII when Germany reached across the Rhine and said, “You’re all coming back here, thank you very much.” This small but very important example explains why there are parts of Alsace that retain enough ‘local laws’ to make sure that they retain their cultural independence from the rest of France….for now.

                        For our purposes today, we need to know that vineyards first appeared in Roman times when good ol’ J.C. (No not that JC…. this was Julius Caesar. The other JC wouldn’t have an effect until a few years later!) came here and helped the Gaul’s defend themselves against the “Invaders du Jour” of that time. Now we have the beginnings of the French Wine Industry, and they didn’t even know it yet!

                        I’ll fast forward a few centuries so that A,) I won’t bore you to death, and B.) This Post won’t end up reading like a Wine 101 textbook! (I wonder if anyone offers that Course?)

                        The year was 1935 and the Wino Powers in France decided that it would be a good idea to put some restrictions on what could be called what and the reasons for those decisions. This was the beginning of the Appellation Controlee Commission. Translated it means basically ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ and takes everything into consideration……. environment, soil varieties, traditions, location, vine growth habits, and of course, the grapes themselves (these factors except the grapes) can be incorporated into one little word… “terroir” from terre meaning land.  Terroir is as important to defining different wines as the grapes themselves are. In short, it means that you cannot produce Burgandy wine in any other French Region except Burgandy or Champagne must originate in the Champagne region or you can’t call it Champagne, you may however call it Sparkling Wine. You can’t even call it Champagne if you are producing it in another country. That’s how strict (and serious) the French laws are, and it seems that the Wine Industry, even in other countries , takes them very seriously! The ‘teeth’ that puts the ‘enforcement’ of this procedure is partially found in the Treaty of Versailles (WWI) where that term Champagne was specifically dealt with. Retain this info for use a little later on.

                        Probably just about all of you have been to a Wine Tasting or two in your lives. As you may surmise, some are better than others due to the wine itself, location, sense of humor of the ‘presenter’ or even if it was a sunny day or not! Everyone is producing wines now, local wines are all the rage with some obviously better than others. But I have yet to be at one where the vintner did not think (or at least proclaim) that their (insert wine term) was the best. Most of these folks in this HIGHLY competitive industry are very proud of their varied vintages and with good reason, especially when you understand the work that goes into producing wines that you hope and pray that someone else will enjoy and of course, purchase! And specifically, the History of the individual Vineyard can play a crucial role in its credibility. It takes a bunch of years and money to start up one of these enterprises….

Can you imagine the guy first opening up and having his first group of Wine Tasters come thorough….

“Ah, yes, let’s see now…. Welcome to Bill’s Vineyard….we’ve been in existence for, ah,  three and a half weeks”…….(everyone turns to leave)

 “But wait! our Vines are much older and come from some stock that’s over a hundred years old! “ (everyone does an about-face and returns)

Nope, cannot even imagine that one!

How about this one:

            “Bonjour everyone! My name is Michele, and we are here at the Albert Seltz vineyard that is still owned and operated by Monsieur Seltz’s 14^th generation grandson, Jérémy.”

            Ok. Now you’ve got my attention!

            Yes, since 1576, Albert Seltz and his progeny have been producing wines in the Alsace Region of France. On the same farm and in the same buildings! No matter who controlled the area!

                        By now you’ve probably surmised that we participated in a Wine Tasting on this River Cruise and that would be correct. Fortunately for us, Viking seems to hunt down the best of the best when it comes to either Excursions and /or the Guides themselves. This experience was no exception, and this is coming from me, the Chocolate Milk Connoisseur! In this case I am referring to the estate of Albert Seltz and in particularly their successful petition of that grand august body of pompeux, prètentieux, wine sniffing membre’s du (here it is again) Appleation d’origine Contrôlée.

                        Here we must backtrack just a tad and introduce just one more designation in this complex situation and it is the designate, Grand Cru. This regulated term may only be used by approval of the AOC after extensive research and subsequent agreement is reached that a particular vineyard  (not region) has proven that their terroir is so selective and specific that they, and only they, can produce that variety of vine that meets this further standard. As you may imagine, it’s a big damn deal!

                        So that’s where we went.  We traveled to the tiny village of Mittelbergheim, Alsace, France. Doesn’t sound very French, does it? Welcome to Alsace! The Amalgam of Western Europe! Our bus barely fit down the tiny roads, but it did and soon we were deposited in front of the main gate of the centuries old estate. From here I will refer back to when I described the two different greetings from the two different wineries, the second one of course is our visit for today. Michele greeted us and transported us back in time by ushering us down into the cellars of Albert Seltz where we heard the family story and proceeded to taste their wines.

                        As you may imagine, the afternoon was huge success both for the Imbibers and the Vintners! The only downside was that the bus was not going to risk almost getting stuck again so we had to hike (uphill!) to edge of town and board there. Not particular hard to do unless the local temps were topping out at 97 and the walkers had just consumed ‘several’ glasses of wine!

                                    We all eventually fell asleep on the bus but not until we sang a few rounds of “99 Bottles of Wine on the Wall.”

                                                “Hic!”