Alsace Pinot Noir

A blind tasting of 2019-vintage wines showed that this classic yet sometimes overlooked French region is now more than capable of matching better-known, quality Pinot Noir-producing areas

- PANOS KAKAVIATOS

When I arrived in Strasbourg some 25 years ago, in France’s northeast, I could not have imagined Pinot Noir from Alsace standing up to fine Pinot Noir wines from Oregon in the US northwest or New Zealand, let alone fine Burgundy, in a blind tasting.

Pinot Noir has been known in Alsace since the Middle Ages. It once flourished, but war and conflict reduced it to just 2% of regional production by 1969. By the 1990s, it was often boring, lacking the spicy, earthy nuance and beguiling, perfume-like cherry characters encountered in great Burgundy, the world standard. Instead I remember thin, weedy reds served in pitchers at local restaurants. Aside from a handful of producers, Pinot Noir was not taken seriously, and the official Alsace Grand Cru appellation of 1975 (revised in 1983) excluded Pinot Noir.