Category Archives: France

France, Wines

Wine Notes: Collioure

 

What I Learned

The Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AOC) Collioure centers around the town of Collioure. (Within this area, vintners also harvest grapes for the AOC Banyuls, a Vin Doux Naturel (VDN) fortified like port, but that is another topic.)

AOC Collioure focuses traditionally on red wines, Grenache Noir predominates, but Syrah, Mourvedre, Cinsault and Carignan are also grown. But hot weather, and a diet laced with seafood, often calls for a lighter wine, vice a hearty red. Accordingly, this AOC allows production of rose wines. Interestingly, in a rose cuvee, vintners may add up to 30% Grenache Gris.

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France, Hiking, Nutshell

Vignoble de Collioure: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name: Vignoble de Collioure

Trail Type: Short distance circuit; well-maintained and mostly hard surfaces (paved or hard-packed), with some rocky areas, good marking on the trail

Length: Total – 9.6 kilometers/ just short of 6 miles

Convenient to: Collioure, Perpignan, France

Marking: Yellow rectangles on the trail, reinforced with signposts identifying the exact location. (See the white lettering on top of the post.)

Trail Marker Coll de Mollo
Trail Marker Coll de Mollo

 

Yellow Trail Marker
Yellow Trail Marker

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France, Hiking

3 Grands Crus, 3 Villages, 1 Hike

 

Some places seem designed for vineyards, and this was one of them. Outside Guebwiller, the slopes of the foothills of the Vosges run into a small mount. Like its opposing counterpart, the Bollenberg mount itself is cloaked in vines. While the Bollenberg vineyards are well-known, more importantly, the Bollenberg itself functions as a shield for the vines on the opposite slope. Protected from eastern winds, and fully exposed to the sun, this long, albeit non-contiguous stretch of slope, has on it not one, not two, but three Grands Crus.

From Vines to Pines
From Vines to Pines

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: South Alsace Grands Crus

 

What I Learned

Alsace’s wine producing region identifies certain vineyard areas as Grand Cru.  The Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine department) area is particularly favored with some great terroirs. Spread roughly north to south, many of the most well-known crus are in the northern and central parts of this department. However, around the area of Guebwiller, there are several, and this post focuses on three.

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France, Hiking, Nutshell

Vignoble de Bergholtz: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name: Vignoble de Bergholtz

Trail Type: Medium distance circuit; trail surface mostly paved, with some hard-packed earthen sections, sometimes covered by loose gravel; well maintained, but the trail itself has no designated marking.

Length: 10 kilometers/ 6 miles (2.5 hours)

Convenient to: Colmar, or Guebwiller, France

Marking: None specific to the trail

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France, Hiking

Wine on the Way

 

Wine is a great European tradition. The Way of Saint James (“The Way”), a pilgrimage route to the far northwestern corner of Spain, is another. The two combine magnificently on this short hike.

Around the year 1000 A.D., people across northern Europe began to undertake pilgrimages to the shrine of Saint James (the Greater). The routes they took to northern Spain tended to converge in France, just in front of the Pyrenees, which they would cross in groups, before continuing the long trek across northern Spain. Of course, for northern Europeans, there was no one route, rather a series of waypoints (mostly small towns or large monasteries) that lead to the Pyrenees’ passes. Most of these waypoints were a day or so apart, where those who hiked The Way (and that was most of them), could find food, shelter and safety for the night. The routes today, if not strictly identical to the ones in medieval times, still follow that precept.  Hiking in Germany, northern France, even Switzerland, The Way routes are seemingly ubiquitous. It is now popular to hike in stages over the years, culminating finally at Santiago de Compostela.

Riquewihr: Porte Haute
Riquewihr: Porte Haute

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: Alsace Haut-Rhin Grands Crus

 

What I Learned

Alsace’s Haut-Rhin (upper Rhine) area’s interesting geological history resulted in some great terroirs.  It was initially born of volcanic activity. Once spent, the volcanic mountains collapsed on themselves, and an ancient sea covered the area. Then two roughly parallel mountain chains arose (the Vosges in France, and the Black Forest range in Germany), and the ancient Rhine river poured through the resulting valley. As the river receded to its current banks, it exposed the slopes of the Vosges. The soil here is incredibly complex, thanks to this geological history, and it results in minerally, and complex wines.

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France, Hiking, Nutshell

Alsatian Way of St. James: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name: The Way of Saint James (Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle)

Trail Type: Long distance; much of it paved (in this section), well maintained, and fairly well marked.

Length:

Total –  Approximately 2000 kilometers (to reach Santiago de Compostela, Spain, from northern Alsace)

Segment – 7.5 kilometers/ @4.5 miles

Convenient to: Colmar, Alsace, France

Marking:

“Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle” (Stylized cockleshell of yellow rays on a blue background)

Signage for the Way of Saint James
Signage for the Way of Saint James

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France, Hiking

Small Casks and Other Delights

 

In a brilliant tour de force, the regional authorities in the department of Bas Rhin, Alsace, have done much to promote wine tourism in this often-overlooked corner of the Alsatian Wine Route. In addition to an up-to-date wine cooperative (and shop with liberal hours), featuring some of its local Grand Cru wines, they have developed a series of wine-themed hiking circuits. There are four circuits, ranging from 17 kilometers to 13.6 kilometers. These circuits all share at least one section. To hike the outside edge of them all results in a hike of 35 kilometers. My kind of tourism. So I selected the circuit that went closest to the cooperative: the Loejele Circuit.

As this is a circuit, it is possible to begin anywhere along it, but I chose Wangen because it was closest to the highway. It is a small village, but one with its medieval walls still partially intact. In fact, my start took me out one of the gates, past the cemetery and into the vineyards in rapid succession.

Tower Gate, Wangen
Tower Gate, Wangen

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: Alsace’s Bas Rhin

 

What I Learned

The Bas Rhin department, in the far, northeastern corner of France, can lay claim to several Grands Crus of Alsace. Many of the better-known ones begin around Barr, and continue south. These are the Zotzenberg of Mittelbergheim (which produces Sylvaner Grand Cru wine, unusual in Alsace); the Kastelberg, Wiebelsberg and Moenchberg Grands Crus of Andlau; the Muenchberg of Nothalten and the Winzenberg of Blienschwiller; Frankstein of Dambach la Ville, and the Praelatenberg of Orschwiller/Kintzheim, the southern-most Grands Crus in the entire Bas Rhin department. However, the northern area of this department has several of its own. The Grands Crus in the Bas Rhin department from Marlenheim in the north to Bergbieten in the south are: the Steinklotz of Marlenheim, Dahlenheim’s Engelberg, the Altenbergs of Wolxheim and Bergbieten, and Molsheim’s Bruderthal.

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