Alsace is dead at retail

Drops mic. Walks off stage.

This is like declaring yourself woke. Or claiming a wave. Gotta let others tag you, bro!

Drops bottle. Stumbles off stage.

When your dad sends you memes

Sad but True. At least in this country. I surrendered a year ago.

Dan Kravitz

And Austria, fagettaboutit.
Must be the bottle.

The Alsatian wines are the next aisle over from the aisle with MACDONALD, Loire, and Burgundy.
The Austrian wines are right beside the Franken wines.

Other than in, well, Alsace, very, very thin audience. Check, please.

They were recently resurrected by Envoyer, briefly but thankfully, with its several offerings of wines from Zind Humbrecht at about half price.

I don’t know if the Gewurztraminers and Pinot Gris were ever that popular, but I used to be able to find them. I think Alsatian wines are priced out of whatever market they used to have, with the exceptions of the entry level wines and the Trimbach Rieslings. Zind Humbrecht made the unfortunate choice to leave Kermit Lynch, reducing their visibility and availability. My email to Anne Trimbach in 2015 regarding the difficulty in finding the Gewurztraminer Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre did not change the situation although she too changed distributors (and now the 2011 was about $80 per bottle when I saw it a few months ago, a significant jump from the $35 or so for the 2004, the last vintage of that wine I found in Los Angeles).

Last time I looked recently, all I saw was Hugel, Trimbach and an odd bottle or 2 of Zind…Last gewurz I bought was from the Finger Lakes

Obviously there was significant jest in this post, but Alsace is quite flat/dead at retail.

That being said, I make an effort to find and buy the wines. I have been getting a lot of Dirler Cade and Trimbach lately. Also gotten a bit from Kientzler in the last year. I would like to find a source for Weinbach again, but so far no luck.

It’s very unfortunate that the Alsatian wines are poorly represented in wine stores. Because of the limited choices and underlying minimal education given for these wines I find in most cases the cause and effect is cyclical. Even though I would consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about wine I find I have only scratched the surface for Alsace wines. Would like to see a better push of information by Alsatian growers. One wine I hunt for is Josmeyer Auxerrois which I think is a very good example of what this variety can be in wine. Most have never heard of auxerrois(pinot auxerrois) and would not know it’s a sibling of chardonnay which makes them very good blending partners. Bel Lago in Michigan makes a very nice auxerrois.

In Oregon, It’s all Boxler. Every single wine shop carries one or two bottlings from them and not much of anything else it seems. It’s a relatively small region (~15k ha, which is just 50% more than the entire Mosel+Saar+Ruwer) and the majority is sold in Alsace itself. The wines are more popular in Germany, the UK and Asia than they are here for whatever reason.

I used to live 30 miles from the Alsatian border and have spent a ridiculous amount of time there. I love it so much -certainly one of the most beautiful places in France and maybe the greatest for cuisine. I hope that they get all the recognition they deserve.

Globally I don’t think that they are hurting for sales, but I do wish that we had a better selection of wines in the US. 20 years ago when I was in retail, I stocked 20 or so different producers and they all sold pretty well. Alsace is due for a comeback.

Cheers,
Bill

I did not think much about this thread at first but then I decided to check CT for my consumption this year of Alsatian wines and was not surprised at the number: 2 bottles. Funny enough, both were strongly in the natural camp which perhaps is quite telling as well, especially as I am not that huge of a natural wine drinker in general. Given that I buy most of my wine in France it is not like availability is a problem - although outside of Alsace the shops are not usually stocking more than a couple of producers from the region and more often than not nowadays it is something like Rietsch, Binner, Ostertag, Deiss or Zusslin for the hip shops and Trimbach and Hugel for the more traditional kind. Likewise just looking at Instagram all the excitement when it comes to Alsatian wines seems to be with the new wave producers and nobody is drinking the established producers.

Another thing that comes to mind are the food-pairing threads here on WB. Seems to me like very often people are quick to recommend an Alsatian Pinot Gris or Gewurztraminer to whatever the food in question is but when was the last time someone posted a TN on any of those two styles here? Even if availability is now poor surely everyone has some Alsace in their cellar still?

The last time for Gewurztraminer was October. The last time for Pinot Gris was November.

I have 8 bottles, but I do not think I have bought one in a few years. The winemakers used to come to Zachy’s often and I would go and talk to them and stock up - Jean Trimbach, Olivier Humbrecht, two very nice guys whose names I forget from Boxler and Albert Mann. However, I haven’t seen them for a few years. I wonder which is the chicken and which is the egg.

We had a very nice entry level Trimbach Gewurz with Xmas dinner. I didn’t note the vintage. Someone else brought it. A young man, so maybe there’s hope.

They exist more in memory than actuality.

I have a fair bit of Gewurztraminer in my cellar. I always keep a stash on hand. Pinot Gris not so much, as I don’t particularly care for it.

I wish I could find Boxler. It reappeared at retail in my area for the 2010 vintage, but since has disappeared again. Weinbach hasn’t been around near me since the '98 vintage, and that was at a shop 90 miles from my house.

My favorite shop stocks a wine selection from Trimbach, so I can always get that.

That’s what happens when something is dead.