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French Wine Explorers Wine e-Newsletter
www.wine-tours-france.com - September 2006

This month's wine explorations:

Bonjour from Paris!

It's now harvest time in France, and winegrowers all over the country have begun to bring in the 2006 vintage crop.  During our Great Estates of Bordeaux tour (Sept. 4-9), we had the pleasure of seeing the beginning of the harvest in Sauternes, as estates like Chateaux Suduiraut and Guiraud started picking the Sauvignon Blanc for their dry white wines (yes, they do make a small amount of dry wine in Sauternes, and it's really good!).  After a cold, wet month of August, sunshine and warm temperatures returned to the Bordeaux region and much of France, bringing with them renewed hope for the quality of the harvest.  2006 won't be as great a year as 2005, but it does look like it will turn out to be a very fine vintage after all.

As Fall approaches and the weather gets cooler, we're looking ahead to our wonderful Alsace Wines & Christmas Markets tour.  For a fun preview of this terrific tour, this month's Wine e-Newsletter gives you a bunch of reasons to get excited about the beautiful Alsace region and its fabulous wines.  Many of you have been asking for the dates of our exciting 2007 tour season, so you'll find those herein as well. If you've ever wondered how Robert Parker scores wines, we'll give you the inside scoop, along with great news about some of our (and your) friends in wine and a little news of our own about our recent press coverage (including Food & Wine Magazine!).  Enjoy!

A bientot (see you soon),

Lauriann Greene-Sollin, Sommelier-Conseil
President/Founder

Five Reasons to Love Alsace and Its Wines

Mention Alsace, and many people think vaguely of long-necked bottles of sweet wine and heaping piles of sauerkraut.  In reality, Alsace has more gastronomic restaurants than Bordeaux, and its top-quality white wines rival with the best Grand Cru's of Burgundy.  Not to mention that the countryside is incredibly beautiful, and the fantastically rich cultural heritage combines the very best of French and German traditions.  Need more reasons to love Alsace and its wines?  Consider these:

1.  They call a Riesling a Riesling:  Alsace is the only Appellation d'Origine Controlee wine region in France that allows all wines to be labeled by grape variety.  On the label of Alsatian Grand Cru wines, you'll also see the vineyard mentioned along with the grape variety.  For those who find the French labeling system complex and difficult to understand (and that's most of us), varietal labeling makes ordering and buying Alsatian wines a snap.

2.  No more wondering what wine to serve with Asian food:  many of the best Alsatian wines are delicately off-dry, containing just enough residual sugar to offset the spiciness of Asian cuisine.  Aromas of exotic fruits like pineapple, litchi and passion fruit in these wines beautifully complement the complex flavors of Asian dishes.  We particularly like Gewurtztraminer or an off-dry Tokay Pinot Gris with Thai or Sechuan food.  Of course, Alsatian wines also go with a wide variety of more standard fare, including the traditional "Choucroute Garni" (sauerkraut with sausage and ham), which can actually be quite a gourmet delight on a cold winter's evening.

3.  THE winter wine country destination:  people tend to visit the French wine regions during the growing season of the vine, roughly between March and October, when the vineyards are in full activity and the weather is warm.  But for those looking for a winter getaway that includes wine tasting, Alsace is THE place to go.  The vineyards are bare of leaves, but have an austere beauty that's captivating, plus there's plenty to see and do in the wine-producing villages dotting the foothills of the Vosges mountains.  They have a particular charm at this time of year, when the rooftops have a light dusting of snow and the colorful Christmas markets are in full swing.  The winemakers have less work at this time of year, so more time to spend with you when you come for a tour and tasting.

4.  The food.  The food.  The FOOD:  it's well worth repeating: the food is nothing short of fabulous.  First, let's talk foie gras: Alsace is the other great foie gras-producing region of France (after the Southwest/Bordeaux).  A good deal of the foie gras made here is goose foie gras, which has a creamier texture and milder taste than duck foie gras.  It goes incredibly well with a Late Harvest Reisling or Pinot Gris (a match made in goose heaven).  Alsace has always been one of the greatest centers of gastronomic achievement in France, and that tradition has only been enhanced in recent years.  2-star Le Crocodile in Strasbourg, for example, has one of the most innovative chefs in all of France, and it seems like every little town has a Michelin-starred restaurant here.  

5.  Grand Cru wines at affordable prices:  the best Reislings can be as great, have as long a cellar life, and complement food as well as the finest Burgundy white Grand Cru's, and yet the prices remain reasonable.  Minerality, complexity, balance - the best Alsatian whites have it all, and even the absolute top-of-the-line wines, like Domaine Weinbach's Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Sainte Catherine, can be found in the U.S. for only $45.

Of course, visiting Alsace yourself is the best way to find your own reasons to love this beautiful region.  Our Christmas Markets and Great Wines of Alsace tour is a great opportunity to experience the very best of Alsatian wine, food and culture at this magical time of year.  See our Alsace tour page, or contact us for more information.

Announcing Our Exciting 2007 Tour Season!

We've been receiving lots of calls and emails asking for our 2007 tour dates - sorry to have kept you waiting!  We're very pleased to announce the following tours and dates for 2007:

May 21-26, 2007:  Bordeaux Prestige (5 nights)
May 28-June 2, 2007:  Burgundy & Champagne Prestige (5 nights)
June 4-9, 2007:  Bordeaux Prestige (5 nights)
September 3-8, 2007:  Great Estates of Bordeaux (5 nights)
September 10-14, 2007:  Great Estates of Burgundy (4 nights)
December 13-17, 2007:  Alsace Christmas Markets (4 nights)    

The prices for all of our scheduled tours are nearly all-inclusive - we leave you just a couple of free meals, so you can eat lightly and make room for our extravagant group meals!  Remember that Bordeaux Prestige tends to fill up quickly, so be sure to contact us soon to ensure your spot on the tour.

Private tours continue to be available in all the French wine regions, as well as in the finest wine regions of Italy, Spain and Portugal, to couples and groups.  These can be customized as you wish, and can include hotels and chateaux from comfortable and charming 3-star to the most luxurious 5-star, gastronomic dining, cooking classes, special wine tastings and wine classes, cultural sightseeing, and, as always, the very best, most prestigious wineries, large and small, famous and soon-to-be-famous.  Jean-Pierre and I will be living in Avignon (crossroads of the Rhône Valley and Provence wine regions) as of next summer, and we'd like to extend a special invitation to come and tour with us in this region we know and love so well.  Special in-depth tours are also available for wine tasting clubs, and for wine and food professionals.

See our web site and download a printable 2007 schedule, contact us by email or telephone us  at 1-877-261-1500 (toll free U.S. and Canada) for full itineraries, details and reservation forms.  We hope you'll join us for an unforgettable wine and food adventure in 2007! 

FWE News Briefs

*  Ever wonder how Robert Parker rates a wine?  During our Great Estates of Bordeaux tour, we had a chance to find out as we visited our friend Christophe Choissy at Chateau Accapella in A.O.C. Montagne Saint Emilion.  Christophe's "garage wine" has been a rising star in the Bordeaux firmament since its creation in 2002, and had caught the attention of Robert Parker, who asked to taste it.  Christophe had to send a sample of his wine to one of Parker's three representatives in Bordeaux, and Parker tasted it along with many other wines, all tasted blind (without labels).  Christophe said he'd had an occasion to meet Parker a few years before that and watch him taste.  He said that it's amazing how quickly he tastes: just a quick swirl in the mouth, then he takes a few notes and moves on to the next wine, often tasting as many as 50 different wines in an hour.  Christophe didn't receive any comments from Parker after the first tasting.  He was told that Parker never publishes comments about a wine until he's had the chance to taste two successive vintages, to make sure there is quality that is consistent from year to year.  This past April, Parker had asked to taste Chateau Accapella for the second time when he was in Bordeaux for the 2005 futures tastings.  When we saw him in September, Christophe was anxiously awaiting word from Parker's people.  The letter came in this past week:  Mr. Parker gave Chateau Accapella 90 points!  I think our clients who tasted the wine on our tour would agree that it's well-deserved.  We congratulate Christophe on a job well done, and thank him for giving us a view into the inner workings of the Parker rating system!

* Our friend Natalie McClean comes out with her first book:  In Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass (cover at right), Natalie MacLean takes her readers behind the scenes of the international wine world—exploring its history, visiting its most evocative places, and meeting its most charismatic personalities. The book has been described as A Year in Provence meets Kitchen Confidential then goes Sideways. Several chapters are devoted to French wines. For more information on the book, tour dates/venues and to sign up for Natalie's free wine e-newsletter, visit www.nataliemaclean.com.  Highly recommended!

*  FWE in Food & Wine Magazine:  we were very pleased to be included in an article on wine touring by noted wine author Robert Joseph in the October "Wine Issue" of Food & Wine Magazine in the U.S.  French Wine Explorers was one of only six wine tour companies to be featured and endorsed by the magazine as the best in its region (we were noted for our tours of Burgundy).  Quite an honor!  Also look for us in an upcoming issue of American Express Departures Magazine, where Jean-Pierre and I present our five favorite Champagnes.

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FRENCH WINE EXPLORERS
info@wine-tours-france.com
www.wine-tours-france.com
Tel:  1-877-261-1500 (toll free, U.S. & Canada)
Fax: 1-253-423-5316

© 2006 French Wine Explorers. Articles © 2006 Lauriann Greene.  All rights reserved.  Fla. Seller of Travel Reg. No. ST36431