Autumn is a high point in Alsace, not just for the wine harvest but the cabbage harvest, too. By early November the crowds have left, but the glorious fall weather remains. December finds storybook towns decked out for the holidays with Christmas markets (not least of all Strasbourg’s, one of the oldest in Europe), often under a dusting of snow. After a quiet winter, things start up again in April—in time for that perfect pairing of asparagus and Alsatian riesling (but avoid the crowded Easter holiday). Late spring and summer are, of course, the busiest seasons.
GETTING THERE & GETTING AROUND Strasbourg is just over two hours from Paris via TGV (track improvements will shorten the journey to 1 hour 48 minutes in 2016) or two hours by car from Frankfurt’s international airport. There are also infrequent regional flights into Strasbourg International Airport in Entzheim, six miles outside town. A car is a must for reaching the villages and wineries—many of them open by appointment only— along Alsace’s Route des Vins. It’s only about 70 miles from Strasbourg, in the north, to Mulhouse, in the south, though you can easily spend five or six leisurely days exploring the region.
STAY
HÔTEL LES HARAS
Just beyond Strasbourg’s ancient Petite-France quarter, Hôtel Les Haras occupies the former home of France’s National Stud Farm; weathered wooden floors, leather headboards, and horsehair curtain pulls are a nod to the property’s equestrian past. (If Hermès created a hotel, it might look like this.) The grand, airy onsite brasserie, overseen by Michelin-honored chef Marc Haeberlin, turns out enlightened Alsatian fare such as a tarte flambée topped with shrimp and smoky paprika.
HÔTEL À LA COUR D’ALSACE
Carved out of a cluster of 15th-century town houses and outbuildings, the village-like Hôtel à la Cour D’Alsace is the top choice in medieval Obernai, which anchors the northern end of the Route des Vins. You’ll find an ambitious fine-dining restaurant, a charming and casual winstub, and an immaculate holistic spa with a mural by Berlin artist Stefan Szczesny over the pool (Obernai; from $195).
HÔTEL LE COLOMBIER
The small high-design Hôtel Le Colombier—with a giant red resin stiletto shoe by artist Richard Orlinksi in the lobby—is set in a 500-year-old town house steps from the canals of Colmar’s Petite Venice district. Comfortable rooms combine heavy original beams and uneven hand-plastered walls with contemporary, clean-lined furnishings (Colmar; from $104).
HÔTEL CHÂTEAU D’ISENBOURG
Play out your Gallic aristocrat fantasies at this mansard-roofed 19th-century palace set on ten park-like acres framed by vineyards. The Hôtel Château D’Isenbourg houses 41 rooms, all with flounced drapes and most with Louis XIV antiques, which evoke a certain faded elegance. There’s an Asian-inspired spa, a mosaic-tiled outdoor pool, and a restaurant with soaring ceilings, sweeping views, and a way with seasonal game, such as slow-roasted wild boar (Rouffach; from $140).
EAT
WINSTUB S’BURJERSTUEWEL
A 142-year-old Strasbourg institution, the city’s most cherished winstub, also known as Chez Yvonne, has a pub-like vibe—worn wooden tables, time-scarred floors—and terrific renditions of presskopf(a jellied mosaic of veal head cheese), baeckeoffe(a stew of juniper- and white wine–marinated beef, lamb, pork, and potatoes), and silky coq au riesling with buttery golden spaetzle. Simple local wines are served in pichets, or small pitchers, at Winstub S’Burjerstuewel , while the bottle list goes deep on gems like a crisp, mineral-edged Grand Cru Schlossberg Riesling from Domaine Weinbach, suited for nearly every dish you want to dig into (Strasbourg).
FLAMME & CO.
Tarte flambée nature—a thin-crusted, pizza-like classic topped with crème fraîche, onions, and smoked ham—was disappearing from Alsatian menus until chef Olivier Nasti revived it. At the slick, modern Flamme & Co. locations in Strasbourg and Kaysersberg, Nasti pushes tradition with toppings such as foie gras pâté, Asian-inspired tuna, and local mushrooms (Strasbourg and Kaysersberg).
PORCUS
The gold standard in Strasbourg for all things fatted, cured, herbed, and smoked, this temple of pork produces a super-savory array of fresh and dried sausages; cooked, smoked, and air-cured hams; and pâtés and terrines of all types. Near the shop entrance, a spiral staircase leads to the narrow dining room; Porcus’s iteration of choucroute garnie doesn’t disappoint, with a choice of up to 15 types of sausages and smoked pork draped over a plowman’s helping of sauerkraut.
LA WINSTUB DU CHAMBARD
The informal, gingham-clad little sister to the two-Michelin-starred 64° Le Restaurant is part of the burgeoning empire of the Nasti brothers (the aforementioned Olivier and sommelier Emmanuel). Go to La Winstub Du Chambard for lunch after a morning of wine-tastings at nearby domaines—it’s perfect in fall and winter, when you crave a bountiful serving of meaty choucroute. Look also for a marvelous choucroute des poissons made with delicate pike perch (Kaysersberg).
L’ENFARINÉ
Locals flock to Kaysersberg’s premier boulangerie, L’Enfariné , for artisanal breads, perfectly coiffed kugelhopf (an Alsatian cousin of the Bundt cake), and an amiable greeting from owner Olivier Krieg, who opened the place in 2012 with his German wife, Anja. L’Enfariné’s kugelhopf is decadently dense and moist with fruit, while its crusty organic-flour bread makes a fabulous base for a sandwich or a wedge of local Muenster. Last year, the Kriegs were invited to participate in the Best Bakery in France competition, unheard of for a two-year-old bakery (Kaysersberg).
MAISON FERBER
Alsace’s high priestess of confiture produces a beguiling array of sweet and savory delights at her shop in Niedermorschwihr, 15 minutes west of Colmar, but it’s Maison Ferber’s house-made jams, which range from perfectly smooth to whole-fruit chunky, that steal the show. She prepares every nine-pound batch herself in thick-bottomed copper pots, working with local fruit like apples and strawberries in season and tropical imports and citrus in winter; the jewel-toned jars topped with polka-dot cloth line an entire wall, and her powdered sugar–dusted kugelhopf is the apogee of the form: moist threads of airy, barely sweetened cake flecked with almonds and dried fruit (Niedermorschwihr).
TASTING NOTES
Alsace is among the few great wine regions dominated by white varietals (gewürztraminer, muscat, pinot gris, and riesling), which run the gamut here from bone-dry to achingly, artfully sweet. Indeed, each is so pure and unique that you can have several whites over the course of a meal without ever missing a red, while their hit of acid perfectly cuts through the umami richness of the region’s classic dishes. Biodynamic farming methods, embraced by many top producers, focus on the health of the soil, lending Alsatian wines their characteristic grace and luminosity. What’s remarkable, of course, is how agricultural necessity—Alsatians grow and produce only what the land will let them—and culinary ingenuity coincided to form one of the world’s most distinctive intersections of food and wine.
CAVEAU MORAKOPF WINSTUB
Typically packed with locals and travelers seated shoulder-to-shoulder, the centuries-old timbered Fromagerie Saint Nicolas offers delicious takes on iconic dishes like *fleischnacka,*a feather-light roulade of pasta stuffed with minced beef and bathed in a rich beef broth (Niedermorschwihr).
FROMAGERIE SAINT NICOLAS
Husband and wife Jacky and Christine Quesnot have been aging raw-milk cheeses for 30 years in a small cave outside Colmar; today, their gorgeous shoebox of a shop, Fromagerie Saint Nicolas, is the city’s sole remaining fromagerie (Colmar).
RESTAURANT LE 17
Hidden in the maze of pedestrian streets in central Mulhouse, Restaurant Le 17,a youthful and of-the-moment meeting place, has modern interiors, chalkboard-lined walls, and a well-priced list of wines by the glass, many from regions beyond Alsace—a rarity here. Chef Jérémy Épinette tops his tarte flambée with chèvre (instead of crème fraîche) and a drizzle of local honey; pair it with velvety pumpkin soup and a refreshingly dry muscat or a premier cru chablis (Mulhouse).
FROMAGERIE ANTONY
Alsace’s most famous affineur—indeed, one of the most acclaimed in France—occupies an unassuming storefront in tiny Vieux-Ferrette, a stone’s throw from the Swiss border. Second-generation proprietor Jean-François Antony displays his wares at Fromagerie Antonylike museum pieces in a beautifully lit glass case: tiny buttons of chèvre, 110-pound wheels of Comté, and the oozy, orange, intensely barnyard-y Muenster for which this region is known, typically served with honey or cumin seeds. Stop in for a tasting of nine cheeses, with or without wine pairings (Vieux-Ferrette).
SIP
DISTILLERIE METTE
The intoxicating scent of fermenting pears greets you at the heavy wooden doors of this small, artisanal eau-de-vie operation, one of the very best in France. Relying on the purity of subterranean springs and pristine local fruit, Distillerie Mette’s 87 varieties range from traditional pear, wild raspberry, and Mirabelle plum to unusual flavors like garlic and truffle (Ribeauvillé; distillerie-mette.info).
DOMAINE JOSMEYER Domaine Josmeyer is dedicated to art in both graphic and liquid form: Certain labels bear designs by Alsatian and Alsace-based artists, whose works are also exhibited in the tasting room. The Grand Cru Brand Riesling carries a vivid acidity and haunting salinity from granite soils. While not grand cru in stature, the elegant Pinot Blanc Mise du Printemps, with its pear and peach bouquet, shows that with the right terroir, any grape can be noble (Wintzenheim).
DOMAINE WEINBACH
Capuchin monks began making wine on this site in the Valle de Kaysersberg in 1612; the ancient clos and the beauty of the winery (built on the site of the monastery) set Domaine Weinbach apart, as do its refined and highly sought-after whites. Highlights include the Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée St. Catherine, grown in thin, sandy soils over granite, and the Gewürztraminer Cuvée Laurence, which derives its succulence from deep clay limestone soil (Kaysersberg).
DOMAINE DIRLER-CADÉ
At this fifth-generation winery just south of Rouffach, nearly 40 percent of the wines are produced from grand cru vineyards; beautifully proportioned and vividly flavored, few of them make it to the States. The Grand Cru Kessler Pinot Gris, from pink sandstone and clay soil, has smoky mineral notes underlying restrained pear and spice aromas. Domaine Dirler-Cadé is also a must-visit for gewürztraminer fans: Look for those from the marl-sandstone soils of the Spiegel vineyard (Bergholtz).
