New York Restaurant Honors the Wine, Food of Alsace
Gabriel Kreuther's eponymous restaurant on 42nd St. across from the New York Public Library pays subtle homage to the chef's native region of Alsace. The restaurant's bar offers a classic tarte flambée and a country sausage with sauerkraut, while the dining room features a sturgeon and sauerkraut tart. The theme extends to the wine list. Sommelier Emilie Perrier first studied Alsatian wines when she was an assistant wine director at The Modern, where Kreuther cooked before opening his own place, and her current list is a terrific introduction to a region that offers a diversity of styles and grapes.
The wine-producing part of Alsace extends 70 miles along the German border from Strasbourg in the north to Mulhouse in the south, a stretch dotted with tiny towns such as Riquewihr, pictured below. It's a region dominated by family estates, none more famous than Hugel, which has been making wine in Riquewihr since 1639. Hugel exports 90% of the 100,000 cases it produces every year, and has been a tireless promoter of its own wines and those of the region. Étienne Hugel, who died in April at age 57, was a roving ambassador for his family's wines, and Perrier pays tribute to him on her current list, where she features several Hugel wines, including the Riesling Jubilée.
Alsatian winemakers like many of their French counterparts produce Crémant, a sparkling wine made in the same way as Champagne but generally less expensive because it isn't allowed to carry that geographic label. Perrier offers several Alsatian Crémants, including one specially bottled for the restaurant by Domaine Valentin Zusslin in Orschwihr that contains no added sugar and is thus very dry. Gabriel Kreuther also offers Zusslin's rose Crémant, pictured here.
Most wine regions specialize in at most a few grapes, but Alsatian producers make wines from eight varieties of white grapes. As a classic example of Pinot Blanc, Perrier cites Albert Boxler's Resérve, which she says is a traditional expression of the grape: "Big, extracted, aromatic. It puts the fruit up front." Its aromatics and richness make it a great Thanksgiving wine.
Pinot Gris is the same grape as Pinot Grigio, but the Alsatians use it to make a much more vibrant wine. Perrier suggests André Ostertag's Grand Cru Muenchberg - A360P, which she says is drier than many wines made from Pinot Gris and describes as "full-bodied, peppery and fresh," with notes of lemon confit that work well with cheese or langoustine. Pictured is one of Ostertag's vineyards; the image gives a sense of Alsace's rolling hills on the east side of the Vosges Mountains, which shelter the vineyards from rain that comes from the west and thus provide a long, relatively dry growing season.
Perrier says that a glass of Domaine Weinbach's Cuvée Laurence Gewurztraminer years ago made her love Alsatian wines. It's a rich, lush wine that works well with foie gras and squab, and unlike most Gewurztraminer, it benefits from some aging. The wine takes its name from Laurence Faller, whose father Theo built the estate into one of Alsace's best. Laurence was the winemaker at Domaine Weinbach until her death two years ago at age 47, converting the estate to biodynamic farming in the late 1990s. Many of the region's top producers now work organically or biodynamically.
Alsace is best known for its Riesling, which occupies about 20% of the region's vineyard space. As an introduction to these wines, Perrier suggests Bott-Geyl's entry-level Les Éléments, which is made in a clean, dry style. Consumers often worry that they will find Riesling too sweet, a fear Bott-Geyl and some other Alsatian producers try to assuage by showing a "Sweetness Scale" on the front label, with one being the driest and 9 the sweetest. The Les Éléments is a one, while the Gewurztraminer of the same label is a four.
Trimbach's Clos Sainte Hune and Cuvée Frédéric Emile Rieslings are two of the world's great white wines, and Perrier has examples of both on her list. She loves the Frédéric Emile for its freshness and says that the 1993 Clos Ste Hune has "an earthiness, a distinct chalkiness that no other Riesling I've ever tasted has." Both wines are exceptionally age-worthy. Perrier says they develop more honeysuckle and evolve from green apple to golden apple as they mature.
Pinot Noir is the only red grape variety allowed in Alsace, and several producers make noteworthy examples. René Muré has produced excellent pinot noir since the 1970s. Perrier features his Clos St. Landelin 2009 on her list, as well as three vintages of Zusslin's Harmonie Bollenberg. She describes them as modern and a little oaky and says they are reminiscent of good California Pinot Noir.
Alsace produces two kinds of sweet wine: Vendage Tardive, or late harvest, and Sélection des Grains Nobles, made from grapes infected with botrytis and picked berry by berry. SGN wines, Perrier says, have a nose of stone fruit and flower blossom and offer "perfume and aromatics that you don't have in Sauternes," the famous sweet wine of Bordeaux. She offers a 2008 SGN from Zind Humbrecht; pictured is a 2011 vendage tardive from the producer, one of the best in Alsace. It's a great way to end a meal and because of its sugar content will last for several days in the refrigerator.
