Sommelier Notes for January

by Bill Summerville

There are many places I can imagine being in January. Sitting on a balmy beach, daiquiri in hand would be one.

But I’m not sure, maybe it’s the chaotic frenzy of the holiday season in the restaurant business that has me instead thinking each January of hunkering down with restorative food and wine that help me feel the comfort, quiet and calm I crave this time of year.

And so when Jamie said Alsace, that fairytale land that is the road less taken by many travelers I jumped right in.

Directly east of Paris, Alsace sits in the far north of France on the border of Germany. Centuries of intermingling French and German culture have created a more Germanic cuisine that is perfect for cold weather- think rich, smokey and fatty pork, potatoes and cheese, spiced with nutmeg, cumin and black pepper.

The wines too, have a German influence with whites outnumbering reds led by riesling, then gewürztraminer, pinot gris, pinot blanc with the lone red being pinot noir.

German whites, rieslings specifically, can be dry to sweet. Alsatian whites tend to be dry. Both can be full-bodied, complex and long lived. And like many wines can be inexpensive or quite spendy. Pinot Noir in Germany and Alsace is lighter than most pinots found throughout the world.

And so we have the inverse in Alsace where the whites are bigger than the reds, but both play really well with the cuisine. The whites match up with their richness and round acidity and pinot undercuts the headiness of the cuisine. A big red would be just too much. So with this menu mixing and matching various wines throughout the meal is definitely a good idea.

Explore riesling, you won’t regret it.

Definitely look into crémant d’Alsace. Sparking wine made in France, but outside of the Champagne region is called crémant. The frigid temperatures in Alsace help create some of the more beautiful and racy non-champagne sparklers.

Maybe stay away from gewürztraminer for now as it can be awkward with its overly-perfumed nose and weighty body.

The caveat in all of this is that Alsatian wines are not well represented in most local wine shops so you may have to shop Alsatian-adjacent wines- wines that have a similar profile, but are from other regions.

I say this time after time, build a relationship with a good wine person at a locally owned wine shop so when you step outside of your wine comfort zone you know you’re in good hands.

Happy New Year!

Bill