Alsace Flashcards
Alsace is one of the rare wine regions in the world devoted almost exclusively to ____ wine.
White
Within one seventy-five-year period in the 19th century, Alsace exchanged ownership between that two countries
Germany and France
How many villages are there in Alsace?
119
The four most important grapes in Alsace are:
What is the fifth
Riesling, Gewurztraminer, pinot gris, and muscat
Pinot Blanc
The lone red grape grown in Alsace is
Pinot Noir
Alsace wines are labeled according to their ______ not their ______.
Grape variety, not their vineyard location
Alsacian winemaking philosophy
Wine should be the purest possible expression of two factors: the grapes it’s grown from and the ground its grown in.
Expression of Alsacian winemaking philosophy
No blending of grapes, fermented with indigenous yeasts, neutral containers (steel or cement), and rarely allowing malolactic fermentation (acidity softening)
What are foudres?
Old, inert casks
Besides dry table wines, two other categories of wine are made in Alsace, what are they?
Vendage tardive (VT) and selection de grain nobles (SGN)
Most leading Alsace producers, even small producers, make how many different wines?
20-30
The majority of Alsace wines can be broken into three categories:
Regular, reserve, and late harvest
What sparkling wine process is used to make Cremant d’Alsace?
Methode Champenoise
What percentage of wine made in Alsace is sparkling?
20%
What is the soil of Alsace?
chalk combined with clay, limestone, granite, schist, volcanic rock, and sandstone
