Pinot Noir from Alsace is coming! How good will it be? Can it be an alternative to Burgundy? Watch this video to find out!
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Todays Guest – Kevin Day
Editor-in-Chief at openingabottle.com
His focus is primarily on European wines, with a lean toward Italian and French wine. Not only does Kevin drink and evaluate these wines but he also travels to the regions. He gets to know the winemakers, their processes and why they do what they do. Then he shares this with all of us.
Photos in this video were provided by Kevin Day at openingabottle.com
This is an area that’s emerging for p Noir so you know we’re we’re looking at a region that is changing before our very eyes in a way that’s a little bit more exciting you know we’re going to have more and more red wines coming from this region because the climate is
Allowing those red grapes to uh to ripen fully uh and when you’re interested in French red wine but burgundy’s costing $100 a bottle or even more uh you know could we be looking at a future where alas is kind of filling that void for us uh it’s totally possible so there’s a
Lot of good things happening here and you know for me when it comes down to it there’s just great stories to tell because of all the different wineries they’re they’re so many of them are family oriented they all have these unique personalities to them uh you know
Some of my favorites you know domain Vine boach bares bushe Ostertag zind hre you know these are great wineries and so the the more that you kind of pursue their wines and and get a chance to like oh I’ve not tried this one from them or
Or this one or um you you can kind of see how they handle the different vintages it’s it’s the kind of place that you can really get excited about I think well you you mentioned uh red wine and pin noir’s coming and for me and and
A lot of folks they may not have heard that news or or knew that that that’s uh that’s very exciting because you know to your point the way they make wine the quality of the wines that come from there now in the whites uh we can only
Expect or the bars set pretty high that the Reds that they do produce and put on the market are probably to your point going to be pretty good as well yeah I mean you think about that hurdle they have to make in the American Market
Just just in our Market I’m not and I’m not saying we’re you know I don’t want to come across like where the end I’ll be I’ll find wine but for us you know listening to this podcast As Americans looking for these Wines in our Market you have to think okay for an importer
To bring in a p Noir from France that’s going to sell well it’s going to have to be priced right it’s going to have to have a level of quality that meets the expectation of the consumer and hopefully it’s not going to be in a tall skinny bottle that makes people think
It’s a sweet wine so so you’re going to have to kind of find a way to you know to to fill that void and so those the wines that are going to pass that hurdle are going to be these really you know uh great domains who have a a legacy with
White wines who maybe even have a legacy with Pina Noir so we’re going to see more and more of those I think and and I think we ought to pay attention to him because you know it’s it’s a it’s a grape that everybody you know expects to
Be one of the greatest in the world and maybe it’s not the wines from mzas I don’t know if they can contend with gron crew burgundy or or maybe you know they they probably won’t have the same richness that maybe you would expect from from Sonoma or from a wamit valley
But they have their own type of thing to say about Pina Noir that I think is worth listening to so are they making Pina Noir now in in the region and they just you know consume it locally as you know yeah I I don’t know if it’s got a
History of being of local consumption but it’s it’s certainly something that they’re increasing the plantings for okay uh within the last two years even they went ahead and allowed uh two of the gron crew Vineyards in alzas to uh be sanction for pan Noir so you can now
Get two different expressions of gr crew pan Noir from alas so um you know just a real quick primer the alsas has gr crew level Vineyards they don’t have a premier crew but but they have these 51 Vineyards that are acknowledged for their unique terroir which I’ll get into
In a little bit because there’s there’s so much to say about rocks and geology if we really get into it but uh these are really special unique sites and two of them uh one is kirberg debar and the other is the hanst grung crew uh have a
Legacy of pan Noir plantings that has proven enough of a track record that they felt okay sanctioning the bottling of gr crew uh Vineyard uh gr crew pan Noir uh one of them was a Vineyard that I’ve walked through with alberman the domain alberman Maurice from domain alberman who’s really the probably the
Top P Noir producer in alzas really made a name for himself and it’s probably a big reason why uh P Noir from alas is gaining traction is because some of the good work done by you know some specific domains and Alber Manon is one of them
And when we walk through the gr crew HST it’s uh you know it’s got the nice uh sun exposure so you know that far north in France you need you really need optimal sunlight it has that uh you know while we’re walking around there was a baby deer that was taking a
Nap in the vineyard wow um you know it was filled with poppies growing everywhere uh tall grasses I mean it’s a Garden of Eden type of grung crew Vineyard uh beautiful place and I I mean I’ve not seen a Vineyard that looks like that in burgundy I mean I love burgundy
Don’t get me wrong but um it was just it was a fascinating world to step into and at that time this was in 2018 that I walked through this vineyard with him uh you know it wasn’t allowed to call that pan Noir a gron crew HST so
You know those names are changing a little bit but it’s certainly something to pay attention to so yeah P Noir is it’s it’s interesting I do think you know there’s some work to be done I’ve had some some examples of P Noir uh you know recently from the Mills alas uh
Event that they host um which you know I think they’re coming from younger planting so they’re not nearly as complex um as maybe what we’re hoping for um but I think there’s there’s tremendous potential there that’s awesome that’s exciting news so I you know I don’t know how long before they
Hit the market here in in the States but when they do I’m looking forward to uh trying a few of those for sure