Alsace Wine
My final visit took place near a small town call Obernai - a village situated in Strasbourg which is part of the Alsace region. The grape varieties that grow there, for the most part, don’t grow elsewhere in France. Alsace is situated in northeastern France, across the Rhine River from Germany. Many of the French who live in Alsace have Germanic names, and the towns have Germanic names, but the region is French. Alsace has predominantly white wines and unblended wines (each made from a single grape variety) usually without oaky flavor. The winemakers of Alsace have even adopted the German practice of naming their wines. Despite these similarities, Alsace wines don’t taste at all like German wines because growing conditions in Alsace are very particular.
The TERROIR:
The most important factor in the Alsace landscape is the Vosges mountains, which flank Alsace’s vineyard area on the west. The mountains are important because they block rain from the west. Their foothills also provide slopes that are ideal for vineyards, and a variety of soil types, which creates diversity in the wines. The Vosges Mountains cut the Alsace region off from any Atlantic influence by blocking moisture and storms from the ocean. As a result, Alsace enjoys an unusually dry, sunny climate — the driest of any classic French wine region. September and October are the driest months — a particularly fortunate circumstance, because dry autumns enable the growers to leave the grapes ripening on the vine without fear of damaging rains. Thanks to the long, dry growing season, the grapes attain a good level of ripeness on a regular basis. The region’s cool nights assure high levels of refreshing acidity. The combination of ripe fruit flavors and crisp acidity is a trademark of Alsace’s wines. Alsatian wine is grown on the hills leading from the Vosges mountains down to the Rhine river, on steep terraces that are exceptionally similar to the ones in Germany's Mosel and many other regions. White wine often does very well on these sharply inclined hills, due to the excellent sun exposure and good drainage of the soil.
From what I can gather, the people in stratsbourgh are the least conern about global warming and how it will affect their wine. I think the reason is because the region has little to no sense of terroir due to the fact that only three AOC designations exist.
