Kutzig, Alsatian Wine Country Tourbus

The Kutzig is a French Alsatian tourbus that picked us up at 10am. in Colmar where we are staying then transported us through six smaller towns/villages in the Alsatian wine country over the course of nine hours. Above is a picture of one of our drivers, and a picture of the view out a side window. I am thinking I should have taken one of the actual bus. A little late now.

The format of the bus is that there are multiple buses on the route so that each town always has a bus there every 90 minutes. We get to choose which towns to disembark and explore and whether to spend 90 minutes or longer in a town. Each town has a quaint old town circuit for walking with restaurants and wineries lining the streets. The vineyards are a brilliant green right now so I am posting multiple pics to allow you to appreciate that.

Our first stop was in Ribeauville, known for its ramparts. A major objective for this outing was to expand our knowledge of Alsatian wine, especially Rieslings. Before tasting though, we bought a chunk of Alsatian cured sausage with thyme embedded for extra flavor. This was food for snacking throughout the journey. We went to the Jean Sipp winery for a tasting. They are on their sixth generation of “Jean Sipp’s” and have been a winery for hundreds of years. The tasting was 10 euro and well worth it, especially compared to prices in the U.S. The young man who served us was a wealth of information. We tasted an Alsatian sparkling wine, a Crémant Brut, and 5 Rieslings. The Rieslings ranged from a 2023 generic Sipp to some 5–8-year-old Rieslings of different pedigrees. Very profound differences were apparent between the wines. The first Riesling and the Crémant were typical fresh vibrant fruity yet dry wines, followed by a series of increasingly complex efforts that expanded my view of Riesling.

We skipped our second scheduled stop at Hunawihr and got off at Riquewihr. There we tasted at Hugel winery. There was no charge for this tasting and no limit to the wines they were willing to allow us to taste, what a deal! We started out asking for the 3 Rieslings available. They started simply, bright and fresh but then the estate 2020 delivered a complexity of earthy rich ripe peach type flavors on a rich earthy backbone. Very impressive and achieved without the use of oak. The 2015 single vineyard Riesling was a revelation. Once again, no oak, but ten years in the bottle produced a richness that would make an 80’s California Chardonnay proud. Lush and musty rich with mature fruit and earth, it was a top wine I have experienced and that includes the hundreds or thousands of wines I sampled while in the business. It was something totally unexpected. At that point I was ready to stop, but the server talked me into trying the Pinot Gris, not a favorite. Still not a favorite and when I explained why we got to the subject of Pinot Noir which I love. Out of curiosity I agreed to sample the Hugel Pinot Noir. First up was the 2023 which was very much a flavor profile of Pinot, but very light, once again vinified without oak. They are not totally oak adverse, however. The 2015 Pinot was exposed to 10 months in old oak. The combination of 10 months of oak and 10 years of age produced an example of one of my favorite Pino Noir profiles. It was light and delicate on entry, but a richness built in the mouth without supplanting the delicacy of the wine. Ripened berry, cherry flavors were complemented by a hint of the earth that produced it, and the fullness was still there on the finish. We were offered to stay there and taste some more, but I felt I had reached the top of the mountain and chose not to interfere with that feeling. We left feeling grateful for their generosity and passion.

We did one more tasting, in the town of Kayserberg. No pictures this time. We tasted at Domaine Schmitt and Carrer. The charge was 10 euro for a 4 wine tasting that ended up being 5 wines. Nothing special here, just bright fresh Rieslings and a Brut Rose Crémant.

Mission accomplished. My knowledge of Alsatian wines was expanded today, but that was not all. We had great conversations with people from Spain, Lithuania, Germany and France. Now I have more information to influence travel decisions.

Interesting side note, we came home and cooked salmon for the second night in a row.  The interesting part to me is that no matter where we stay it seems the salmon is better than what we usually have at home in Spokane. Yet we are told we have great salmon there. We consistently eat firmer, fattier, tastier salmon in our travels.