Wine tasting Alsace or Mosel valley

[Bennybannsider2]

I'm trying to plan a holiday to Germany for either Halloween or Easter. We will go to either phantasialand or Europapark for a day. We will have a hire car. We will probably stay in a centre parks/ landal type accomodation (possibly over the border in Netherlands or France.)

And I would like to do some wine tasting. Has anyone toured the wineries either in Alsace or Mosel? Easter is in March 2027- will this type of trip work at Halloween or March? (I see that the Alsace wine bus only does weekends in march and we probably won't be there over a weekend.)

The wines in these two regions are very different so I would say it also depends what kind of wine you like.

i can only talk about white though.

i only have been in late September or early October for the wine harvest so can’t comment what is available later in the year or so early. But I assume most vineyards do some form of tasting all year rounds.

Mosel is fairly full bodies, Alsace is dry. If you normally drink New Zealand for example the Alsace ones may be too dry and a bit too sour for you.

For example my PIL in Germany buy direct from a vineyard in Palatinate, across the border to Alsace. My favourite grape is a Silvaner and I just can’t drink it at their house.
it tastes utterly different from the ones in Frankonia, Northern Bavaria, where I lived for several years.

I know that Waitrose sells some Alsace wines and M&S some Mosel. Maybe get some bottles of the same grape, for example a Riesling, and compare.

In general I prefer Mosel whites but I'm an amateur and only drink ones widely available in UK.

I hope the vineyards are open all year!

Yes, the winemakers in Alsace are open all year. (I used to live in a winemaking village there.) Most are closed on Sundays. Do not even think about turning up on Good Friday.

At most places, except perhaps the very top names (Trimbach, Dopff & Irion, Zind-Humbrecht), you can often turn up on spec and just ask for a tasting. This is normally free. The contrepartie is that you are expected to be sincerely interested in buying 6 bottles, preferably 12. If you arrive in a car this will be just assumed. The more serious you appear, the better the welcome. "Hi, we're looking for a couple of dozen bottles for a wedding" will go down great, as will "We'll definitely have six of that one" after one of the first few glasses. To be fair there aren't many timewasters driving around, but most places have their regulars, and there are not too many English-speaking tourists turning up at random.

Be aware that a full Alsace tasting may involve a dozen or more different wines. There are seven main grapes, plus most places have an Edelzwicker (blend), and then there's the crémant which may have a non-standard grape like Chardonnay in it. Next you get to the grands crus (€€€), the vendanges tardives (€€€€) and the sélections de grains nobles (€€€€€).

Even though the tasting servings are very small, a full session of the whole range will easily put you over the 0.05 drink-drive limit. Plan accordingly (e.g., taste at 4:30pm having checked in to your hotel a kilometre walk away). One time I went with a friend to the least highly-rated producer in our village. DP wisely stayed at home. The tasting was run by Grandma, who was babysitting a 5-year-old. We learned some interesting Alsatian dialect vocabulary, and we also got completely plastered as she was pouring at least 10cl glasses!

Don't hesitate to go into a cooperative. Unlike much of France, in Alsace the co-op wines can be every bit as good as those from places that make wine from their own grapes.