This evening’s French Wine Scholar class was all about the wines from Alsace.  The course is fun, educational and entertaining. Each class we sample 8 great wines, learn about history, geography, geology and vinification all in a light manner, with enough humor to make the class not too Cliff Clavinish.  A great way to spend an otherwise quiet Tuesday night.

The Honored Guests from Alsace

Tonight we had a guest lecturer who is a winemaker from the Alsace.  His family has been making wines in the region since the 1500′s.  He has come to Washington to make great Rieslings using old world techniques from new world fruit.  A growing collection of the world’s best wine making talent including the winemakers at Long Shadows Wineries, Dr. Loosen, and Christian LeSommer at Chateau Rollat, in Walla Walla are doing this.

At the beginning of the class the textbook for the course was handed out and as the class went on an oh shit moment hit. I realized that there might of been a bit of a misjudgment in this little endeavor and am walking into a gunfight armed only with a knife. F0r how fun the class is, it is now apparent that the exam is going to be equally difficult.  It is an academic equivalent to the of law in physics about every action having an equal and opposite reaction.  Time to  go find some cheese to go with this whine, and buck up and see if I can get it done.

There were two wines from tonight’s class that are worth mentioning.  The 2006 Marcel Deiss Pinot Gris ($26) and the 2006 Helfrich Riesling Grand Cru Steinklotz ($22).