Alsace Vineyard Walk

3 - 9 October 2010

Alsace must rank as one of the most beautiful and charming of all fine wine regions, it must also be the single most misunderstood! With its location on the German border and Germanic sounding grape varieties, it is easy to see where the confusion arises but Alsace is firmly French. The small, delightful half-timber villages seem to have walked straight out of the pages of Grimms fairytales and boast some of the most hospitable and distinguished wine producers in all France. From three centres including Colmar we walk five to nine miles a day, through the some of the best vineyards in Alsace, with picnic lunches and auberge dinners.

This walk covers the centre part of the lovely Alsace Haut-Rhin vineyards and villages. It starts with a descent from the Château of Haut Koenigsbourg, then heads south with gentle walking for the next few days. Our first stop is with Rolly-Gassmann for an amazing tasting. Our base for the first two nights is Bergheim.

Next day on to Ribeauvillé, then past the hamlet of Hunawihr, with its fortified church, to Riquewihr where we are based for
two nights. Here we visit Hugel, one of the great names. In Kientzheim we have a tasting with Blanck, then the afternoon takes us via Kaysersberg to Ammerschwihr and the Kaefferkopf vineyard whose wine we taste. Next day it’s on to Turckheim via a tasting with Boxler. Lunchtime is in Colmar then the afternoon is around Eguisheim and Husseren-les-Châteaux.

Alsace, with its dry climate, is in the rain shadow of the Vosges where the vineyards give way to forest, pasture and scattered fruit trees, the source of the fruit for the ‘eau de vie’. We cover this fine country on our last day, seeing peaks and lakes, visiting a distillery and having a great lunch at a fèrme auberge.