I’ve got a work trip coming up in southern Germany and I’ll have an extra weekend to spare so the plan is to take a few days and explore a bit more of Alsace. I’ve been before at Christmas time, years ago, but I had my family with me and two little kids running all over Christmas markets is not terribly relaxing. This trip, while not the ideal time of year, will be just me and should be a very different experience. Hoping to eat and drink very well. I haven’t seen a lot of posts on the region in the last couple of years (most of the activity I’ve seen is a few years old at least) so I was hopping to see if anyone has any new recommendations. Here’s my rough plan so far.
Thursday: Pick up the rental car and drive the 2.5 hours to one of the little villages between Strasbourg and Colmar. Haven’t decided exactly where to stay yet but have dinner reservations at the 2-Star Auberge de L’ill. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about this place and am excited to try it. I guess it held 3 stars for 50+ years but lost one recently.
Friday: Probably try to do a morning tasting and an afternoon tasting. Trimbach, Zind-Humbrecht, and Albert Mann are the front runners at the moment. Dinner is planned at Wistub du Sommelier in Bergheim. I’ve seen it mentioned many times and seems like a fun place to explore a little more wine. No reservations yet, so I’m not married to it if someone has another suggestion.
Saturday: Maybe one more tasting in the morning somewhere, just wander around and explore a bit, and then make my way north again. I’ve got dinner reservations at the 2-Star Auberge du Chavel Blanc. I really like that they offer a smaller dinner menu option as I’m guessing I’ll be pretty full by this point.
Sunday: Time to drop off the rental car and start making my way home to Berlin.
Should be a really fun trip and with any luck, might even see a bit of sunshine. Fingers crossed. If you’ve got anything suggestions for things I might be missing out on, please let me know. I’ll be sure to report back on how it goes.
Awesome trip report! I know those take hours to put together. I went ahead and started at post #1. It was a lot of fun to follow your journey; I was just in Piemonte a couple of months ago, also stayed in La Morra, and ate at some of the same places you did. Really is one of my favorite regions. I also enjoyed your Burgundy posts. I haven’t been in years but did recognize that wine bar. I was actually debating for this trip Alsace or Burgundy and decided with the short amount of time I had, this time would be Alsace.
And the Alsace posts… excellent! I am for sure adding the cheese detour to my trip. That place provides the cheese to several restaurants I’ve eaten at in the past and I would love to visit. Had no idea that’s where it was.
Thanks for taking the time to share so much great info.
My husband and I are hoping to visit Alsace in April/May of 2023, so super interested in reading about your adventures! Enjoyed Alan’s write up immensely as well. Going to have to sit down this weekend and make notes of the restaurant locations. Our plan is to do a walking tour with a company that transports your baggage from hotel to hotel.
You’ll have a great time. I had two excellent, casual dinners last fall: Winstub de Chambard in Kayserberg and La Taverne Alsacienne just north of Colmar. Check out the wine list at the latter–it’s online.
I mention a couple of the great tastings briefly here: https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3344195#p3344195
The prettiest of the small, medieval villages is Riquewihr, at least in my opinion. We loved just strolling around and had an excellent lunch there. Can try to find the name of the place if that is where you end up going.
Tasting at ZH was excellent but it did have a slightly corporate feel that reminded me more of Napa Valley than Alsace. In terms of off the beaten path wine experiences, we absolutely loved the wines at Meyer Fonne. If you have a rental car, getting there wasn’t too bad.
I did a quick weekend in Alsace in January 2018 prior to some business meetings in Basel. I tasted at Trimbach (my favorite Alsace producer) and Dirler-Cadé. You can taste a staggering number of wines at Dirler. I just looked at the wines-available-for-tasting sheet and I’d estimate there are around 6 dozen listed. I tasted 15.
I really wanted to taste at Boxler, but they were closed for tasting that month. I found a wine shop in Riquewihr that carried their wines. I came back with 16 bottles, 15 Riesling and 1 Gewurz ('11 Trimbach VT).
I also had lunch at Fromagerie Antony. I highly recommend taking a detour there.
I stayed in Ribeauvillé as I could walk to and from Trimbach and Wistub Zum Pfifferhüs. A friend who had been to Alsace numerous times told me the choucroute garni at Pfifferhus was one of the best he had eaten. He also told me to save room for their selection of eau de vie. Hence, walking (staggering) distance was the action.
One of my dinners was on Sunday so finding a restaurant was a bit of a challenge. I had an excellent meal at Aux Armes de France in Ammerschwihr.
Photos 1 & 2 are Ribeauvillé, 3 & 4 are Riquewihr.
Aux Armes de France photos start after the Kientzler Riesling photo. The slab of foie was as large as my hand! Yes, I finished it (burp). The last photo is of my dining companion that the restaurant provided as I was dining solo.
