Trimbach Muscat 2007 Alsace,France

Alsace sits high in the northeast corner of France and boarders Germany and Switzerland.

Sheltered by the Vosges mountains to the west and against the Rhine river to the east.The shape of the bottles gives a clue to the turbulent past of the region.


Wine producers in this northern corner of France have suffered through the Napoleonic War,the Franco-PrussianWar ,World War I and World War II and its last annexation before finally being returned to French ownership when the war ended.

In fact Jean Trimbach`s uncle served voluntarily in the French army and was then conscripted into the German army when Alsace was annexed by Hitler during World War II.

The Germans maintain that the natural boundry for Germany is actually the Voges mountains while the French maintain it is the Rhine river and seeing as the Germans lost the war,the Rhine it is, and Alsace is officially French!
Riquewihr 1942

However when you visit there you cannot deny that in addition to French there are also German and Swiss influences on the region. Alsace is a beautiful area full of small, historic towns with ancient half-timbered houses like something out of the Hanzel and Gretel or Heidi books and has quite dramatic scenery.
But ultimately Alsace to me is like a little country itself .It is just Alsace.. a hybrid of the countries on its borders.

The food certainly also has German/Swiss influence and while visiting there I found it hard to escape a meal that did not feature ham,gammon or pork ribs.However they do a thing called a tarte flambee which is the thinnest pizza that you can image baked in a wood fired oven topped with creme fraiche,white cheese ,white onions and surprise surprise small pieces of rasher(!)Served piping hot directly from the oven... it is sublime, in fact I could live on it.

Indeed, Alsace is home to the two longest-running family businesses in all France:Domaine Trimbach and Domaine Hugel,in operation since the 17th century.The Trimbach winery(pictured left)who makes this Muscat is run by two brothers Pierre who looks after winemaking and Jean in charge of marketing.They are the 12th generation of this family making these wines.

To quote Jean :‘The key to our continuity and success is the family.We are all closely connected with the business and with our wines. This is very important if you want to build for the long term." Here, the long term means centuries!


By the way they have a very strange habit of singing badly in Alsace and Jean is one of the worst offenders! He "very" frequently sings.. to the tune of My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean:

My bottle lies over the ocean,
My bottle lies over the sea,

My bottle lies over the ocean
Oh Trimbach my bottle to me. Trim-bach,Oh Trimbach,

Trimbach my bottle to meeee.
Trim-bach,Oh Trimbach,
Oh Trimbach my bottle to me.

Even in the local bars you see families and friends having a drink and singing away,as happy as Larry... but completely out of tune!.In my head I have decided that it must be something to do with the war because maybe they didnt know who was for the French or for the Germans so when they were socializing the only safe option was to sing

Anyway to the wine itself...unlike many Muscats, it is relatively dry. The highly-scented nose leads into a flavour so fruity that you almost think you are eating ripe grapes.Believe it or not Muscat is one of the few grapes whose taste remains unaltered when vinified into wine.

Made with two different types of Muscat both of which have the distinctive grapey flavour.Muscat Ottonel brings the roundness and the softness and Muscat d'Alsace brings the natural acidity.

Serve it as an aperitif, but it is also excellent with asparagus, melon or smoked fishes.

This is a very approachable number which appeals to most wine drinkers.Obviously great with cheese based pizza and all spicy foods in the classical sense like sausages,salami ,ribs etc so an ideal quaffer for outdoor eating especially any thing with ham!
Remember the traditional Irish salad...the 2 rolls of ham,one fresh tomatoe and one hard boiled egg cut exactly in half ,Irish lettuce, homemade potatoe salad and the Chef Salad Cream as opposed to mayonnaise on the side ..oh yeah and don`t forget the scallion garnish and if you want to be really posh a single pink radish..

Get out the Hawaiian Tropical and you are all set for retro Irish Al Fresco!

Prost!

Evelyn

THE VINTRY ,RATHGAR.

CONSUME AND ENJOY IN MODERATION

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