Vintage Alsace : Through Hills Blanketed With Vineyards, They Searched for Wine Finds Along the Rhine

We had just pulled over to snap a picture of a centuries-old stone gateway marking the tiny wine village of Wangen, in northeastern France, when Eugene Kratz rolled out of the brush on a tractor even more weathered than his tattered cap.

Spying our camera he dismounted from his perch, took our arms and led us across the narrow pavement to his modest timbered home overlooking the valley below. He smiled like a proud father at the vineyards blanketing the nearby hills. Wine is the very soul of Alsace, he said in German-accented French, adding, as he patted his broad chest, “I made some of the very best.”

Kratz, 82, then disappeared into his house, retrieving half a dozen brightly colored labels for Riesling, Tokay, Gewurztraminer and other wines that were bottled under his name before he retired in 1985.

Over the next few days, touring the entire 75-mile-long Alsatian Route du Vin that borders the Rhine River, we began to understand the wine heritage of which Kratz is so proud. As a bonus, we discovered that Alsace is home to marvelous food and among the most visually captivating regions in the country.

Beginning in the tiny hamlet of Marlenheim, a stone’s throw from Kratz’s vegetable patch and about 15 miles west of Strasbourg, near France’s border with Germany, we tracked every inch of the regional wine road that wends south from near Strasbourg to Thann. En route, we passed dozens of geranium bedecked homes and busy village squares tucked into the dramatic eastern slopes and valleys of the Vosges mountains. In the distance, beyond the broad plains, the Rhine River sparkled.

Nearly everywhere we looked were fields of vines and cellars where vintners insisted we sit down to sample a choice wine or two.

We spent many an hour in winstubs-- the homey cafes where locals gather for food, drink and gossip. There we sampled traditional dishes such as tarte flambee topped with fromage blanc, cream, bacon and onions, and choucroute , a mixture of sausages, ham and bacon heaped like firewood on a bed of sauerkraut.

In Strasbourg alone there are several well-known and wonderful winstubs loyal to the region’s cuisine. Among our picks both for their food and their charm are Maison des Tanneurs, Chez Yvonne and Le Clou. In Colmar we also liked the Maison des Tetes.

In these and other places we were happy to learn that Alsatian kitchens are also home to escargots and foie gras--for which the region is famous--and that we could find dishes as delicate as sole meuniere or as hearty as duck a l’orange.

In the few days before our departure from Paris where we live, my wife, Diane, and I studied up a bit on Alsatian wines, leafing through books and brochures. But our real education came at the countless wine caves that line the wine route itself, where free samples (degustations) are offered, often along with discount prices on bottles and liberal conversation in French, German and, occasionally, English.

At virtually every stop, we were told that Alsatian wines are misunderstood.

“There is confusion between our wine and the German Rieslings, which are really very sweet,” complained George Lorenz, 31, whose family has been making wine in the village of Bergheim for six generations. Alsatian wines can be fruity, but remain quite dry, he explained as we sipped several vintage wines with him in the tasting room of his main warehouse last year at this time. And unlike wine from other regions, which take their names from the place where they are produced (Bordeaux and Champagne, for example), Alsatian wines are named for their grapes. We saw and sampled seven primary varieties along the wine road--Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc, Muscat, Tokay (or Pinot Gris), Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir. All are white except Pinot Noir.

Setting out early one morning from Strasbourg, we drove west toward the Vosges and began our search for the first leg of the Route du Vin--not as easy a proposition as we had been lead to believe.

Guidebooks insist that the route is well marked, but it really is not and we found ourselves doubling back several times over the next few days in search of the proper road. We were glad we had picked up a wine road map at the tourist office in Strasbourg. It clearly identified each village on the route so that we could watch for signs leading us to our next stop, even when we lost sight of the Route du Vin markers, which were often small and sometimes rather low to the ground. The same or a similar map can be found at tourist offices along the route and at some of the larger hotels.

Despite false starts and turns, we traveled almost half the wine route the first day, charmed by vast vineyards stretching up the Vosges slopes and the tiny villages decked out with planters spilling over with brilliant geraniums, petunias, daisies and other summer flowers.

Having followed the road through the town of Barr and far up the slopes of the Vosges, we stopped for lunch at the Hotel Arnold in Itterswiller, poised on a hillside overlooking the vineyards. There we ordered baeck-hoffa, a heaping crock of lamb, beef and pork on a stew of onions and potatoes, and coq au Riesling, a variation on coq au vin simmered in the local white wine rather than in the Burgundies that are more commonly used (about $55 for two). We couldn’t help but feel inadequate as we struggled with the immense portions while an elderly yet surprisingly svelte couple at a nearby table lapped up equal amounts in record time.

About an hour and several miles later on this brilliantly sunny day, we checked into the 8-year-old Hotel Le Schoenenbourg in Riquewihr.

We were surprised that the hotel was only a few years old. Still, it was fabulously comfortable, reasonable at about $65 a night and perfectly located on the edge of the village. We took a short breather on the wood terrace, sipping cold beers and visiting with the manager’s dog before heading off to explore the village itself.

The walled hamlet of Riquewihr was miraculously spared devastation during the World Wars and has carefully maintained its historic identity and guarded its enchanting warren of narrow cobbled lanes, flower bedecked water wells and its charming timbered clock tower. Still, it appeared to have lost its battle against legions of tourists and merchants hawking trinkets at virtually every corner.

But any misgivings we felt about the village were quickly swept away that night, thanks to the culinary artistry of Francois Kiener, chef of the Auberge Le Schoenenbourg less than 100 yards from our hotel. Kiener--who clopped from table to table in his clogs and chef’s habit--was trained in Burgundy and San Francisco and acknowledged that his was not traditional Alsatian cuisine.

For about $120 for both of us, we dined graciously on a plate laden with foie gras sprinkled with fresh tarragon, fennel and other herbs (heaven!), ravioli with prawns and sea bass with a tomato and basil confit. With the meal, we sipped a Riesling--Schoenenbourg, grand cru 1990, made by the Raymond Berschy family whose office was 100 feet down a narrow road from where we sat in the restaurant.

Returning to the wine route the next day we passed by Riquewihr en route to Kaysersberg, a marvelous village about five towns down tucked up in the valley of the Weiss River. Kaysersberg, which has the distinction of being the birthplace of Nobel Prize-winner Albert Schweitzer, was among the most captivating villages we saw and hasn’t suffered the onslaught of tourists that afflicted Riquewihr.

The river courses through the edge of town, weaving among the timbered homes, a 12th-Century tower overlooks the village from a nearby slope and storks, the symbol of Alsace, have nested in several towers and on rooftops. We lunched leisurely on the outdoor patio of the Lion d’Or restaurant in the center of town and watched the lanky storks wheel overhead.

Leaving history behind, we next headed for Colmar, the business capital of the wine region. With a population of more than 63,000, Colmar boasts a fine 14th-Century cathedral and several worthy museums, including the Unterlinden, which houses a variety of well-known religious paintings.

We settled that afternoon at the hostellerie Le Marechal, located in a quarter of the city known as Petite Venise (little Venice), for its narrow streets and canals. Le Marechal is worth a peek even if you don’t stay there. It’s a whimsical conglomeration of four 16th-Century homes that have been joined in recent years into a distinguished hotel overseen by the energetic Madame Ingeborg Bomo, her husband, Gilbert, and her intimidating Great Dane, Ferro.

Rooms named after various composers (ours was Handel, about $130 per room; Wagner was the most expensive at $240) are elegantly decorated, many have air-conditioning and some have whirlpool tubs for the road-weary traveler. Though we were inclined to eat at Colmar’s famous Maison des Tetes--so named because of the busts and sculptures adorning the facade--Madame Bomo and an appetizer of carpaccio of lamb and wild mushrooms convinced us to reconsider her dining terrace alongside one of the canals, where we dined well for about $140 on the capaccio, frog legs, duck breast and, of course, Riesling.

Resuming the wine route the next morning, we visited the stone towers perched on the hills above Husseren and briefly examined a handful of charming villages before acknowledging that as beautiful as the towns were, we were tiring of quaint hamlets, half-timbered homes and bins of geraniums. What better remedy, we thought, than turning toward the mountains we had skirted for so many days.

Having made no reservations for this last night, we relied mostly on serendipity and discovered the jewel of our trip: the Residence Les Violettes in Thierenbach, just up the mountains from Guebwiller, on the wine road.

Les Violettes is set in an exquisite valley with a view from virtually every room of the adjacent forested slopes and the onion-shaped bell tower of Notre-Dame de Thierenbach. Charmed by our modest room on the second floor (at an acceptable $90 per night), we returned downstairs and asked if we were too late for lunch. “We might be able to fix you a little something,” we were told, as we were shown to an enclosed dining terrace.

We were stunned by the view and the elegance--crystal goblets, fine china settings and bursting displays of roses. (If only we had dressed for the occasion, we thought--an idea that appeared to be shared by some of the better dressed patrons eyeing us over their desserts.)

Inspired, we launched into a midday meal of veal medallions blanketed with morels and a collection of fish fillets that included salmon, bass and other delights. With it, we ordered one of the more full-bodied Pinot Noirs, a 1990 from Dorpf & Irion, a vintner from Riquewihr. The bells of the church chimed as if on cue. We hardly noticed the $85 bill.

Eager to make room for dinner, we asked about the many paths that led into the forest behind the hotel and were shown a map of the terrain with instructions simple enough that even we could follow them. Two hours later, we returned to the outdoor patio set off a few yards from the main house, where a young waiter took our orders for afternoon cocktails.

Knowing that the next morning we would complete our trip down the remaining few miles of the wine road, we threw caution and our checkbook to the wind. For a stunning (but well-invested) $180, we dined on frog legs in garlic and duck breast a l’orange, followed by an assortment of mousses and ices doused with raspberry sauce.

Credit for the feast goes to Jean Pierre Munsch, the owner, chef and main attraction. Taking a few minutes away from the kitchen, he walked us to a well-camouflaged garage where he keeps many of his 21 vintage cars.

Munsch singled out a blue 1925 Citroen B12 coupe with leather seats. “My parents had one of those when I was young,” said Munsch, now 64. “Later, when I saw one, I bought it and repaired it.”

But his favorite: a six-cylinder 1931 Citroen Roadster, painted a sky blue, with deep-water blue detailing and a leather canopy that folds back so passengers can enjoy the open air. He climbed in, pushed a button, fretted with the choke and vroooooom. “Ca marche!” he exclaimed.

GUIDEBOOK: Alsatian Wine Road

Where to stay: Hotel des Rohan, 17 rue Maroquin, 67000 Strasbourg; from the U.S., telephone 011-33-88-32-8511, fax 011-33-88-75-6537. Rooms range from about $100 to $150.

Hotel Le Schoenenbourg, rue Piscine, 68340 Riquewihr; tel. 011-33-88-89-49-0111, fax 011-33-89-47-9588. Rooms range from about $65 to $120.

Le Marechal, Petite Venise, 68000 Colmar; tel. 011-33-89-41-6032, fax 011-33-89-24-5940. Rooms range from about $120 to $240.

Residence Les Violettes, Thierenbach-Jungholtz, 68500 Guebwiller; tel. 011-33-89-76-9119, fax 011-33-89-74-2912. Rooms range from about $80 to $160.

Where to eat: Maison des Tanneurs, 42 rue Bain aux Plantes, Strasbourg; in France tel. 88-32-7970). About $45 per person for dinner.

Chez Yvonne, 10 rue Sanglier, Strasbourg; tel. 88-32-8415. About $35 per person for dinner.

Le Clou, rue Chaudron, Strasbourg; tel. 88-32-1167. About $45 per person for dinner.

Maison des Tetes, 19 rue Tetes, Colmar; tel. 89-24-4343. About $45 per person for dinner.

For more information: French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 715, Beverly Hills 90212, (900) 990-0040 (calls cost 50 per minute).