You will have the opportunity to enjoy private wine tastings in Alsace-Lorraine as you pass through the Route des Grand Vins on your hotel barge cruise.

Photo: Pixabay – Phedon Konstantinidis.

The Route des Grands Vins

The Route des Grands Vins, officially established in 1953, winds 170 kilometers through the valleys in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. Stretching from Marlenheim in the north to Thann in the south, a journey along the Route takes in over 1,000 wine producers.

Photo: Pixabay – Janusz Nowak.

Many vineyards and wineries along the Route des Grands Vins welcome visitors for tasting sessions. If you’re travelling through Alsace on a hotel barge cruise, you will have the opportunity to attend wine tasting excursions.

To reassure the novice and to refresh the more experienced wine connoisseurs, we have compiled a few guidelines on tasting etiquette to get the most from your visits.

Tasting Protocol

Wine tasting may seem a little intimidating, but with a few pointers it is easy to learn the basics. To get started, you don’t have to be an expert – simply rely on your senses!

– Sight

First, you need to give your wine a thorough visual once-over. Swirl and tilt the glass to catch the full range of a wine’s color.

Alsace is a mainly white wine-producing region, so expect to find a lot of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris (with the occasional Pinot Noir for the red-loving crowd). With the white wines, look for color tones that are tawny, golden or yellowy-green. It should be clear and sparkling, not murky and dull.

– Smell

A few quick sniffs should tell you everything you need to know about a wine’s bouquet. Experienced connoisseurs might talk of grapefruit and musk, but focus on specific bouquet groups to get started. Is it fruity? Herbal? Flowery? From dry to sweet, fruity to herbal, you’ll find a spectrum of bouquets in Alsace.

– Taste

Finally, we come to taste. Take a small sip and let it circulate through your mouth. You may want to spit the wine out if you’re planning to taste many, but swallowing the wine is perfectly fine. In tasting, you should be able to pick up the same characteristics you identified in smelling the wine, but you will also get a sense of the wine’s balance and complexity.

The Ultimate Test

The best measurement of a wine is whether you actually like it. Though your preferences may evolve with more tasting experience, the best wines are the ones you would actually want to taste again.

Along the Route des Grands Vins, you will have plenty of opportunities to sharpen your tasting skills. On a hotel barge cruise, the vast and varied world of Alsatian wine is open to you in this stunning corner of the world.

French Hotel Barges in Alsace-Lorraine

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