Ribeauville
13 September 2017, continued
We followed the smaller country road of the Route des Vins d'Alsace, passing through the towns of Saint-Hippolyte, Rorschwihr, and Bergheim before we came to the outskirts of Ribeauville. We found easy street parking, leaving our car to be watched over by the vineyards as we passed through the gates onto the cobblestoned pathways of the old town. Our hotel was right on the little square (triangle?) of Place de la Sinne, surrounded by restaurants and shops. With the cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, and the little fountain in the middle, we felt we found the perfect spot in a picturesque Alsatian village!
We checked in to the Hotel Au Lion and took a quick rest in the room. While in line for check in, we heard the beautiful young woman behind the desk really talking up the restaurant at the hotel, so before heading back out we found her and made our own reservations for the evening. We stepped out into town, this time rested and free to explore!
We strolled slowly along the Grand Rue, looking in the windows of the shops and patisseries that lined the cobblestone walkway. I say it often but can't seem to say it enough – I adore these little streets that are primarily pedestrian only. We walked through an old gate tower, past a library with a cute painting on the wall, and tucked into little grocery shops, all the while feeling the old historic stones underfoot. We saw a tiny little pretzel bakery, and while the pretzels looked amazing for sure, we were really excited to find they had keugelhopf! Looking like a Bundt cake but more like a brioche, keugelhopf is one of the specialties of Alsace and on our must try list. We noted that place to stop back.
It is currently September, and this is the time of year for the grape harvest. Wineries are open still, but there is a bustle along the streets as all hands are pitching in for this busy season. Tractors were driving through fields and along the roads, pulling trailers with bins full of the grape harvest behind them. Even in town the wineries were full of people hard at work. I thought all this was great to see. These aren't just showplaces or retail outlets, here they are the actual working wineries, filling their holds with fresh picked grapes to actually make their wine. We came across one spot where they were cleaning out their bottling equipment in the alleyway, and we had to stop and look it over. I've made wine, mostly little fruit wines one gallon at a time, but the equipment we saw was for a nice operation. We've toured many wineries and frequently find ourselves in Canadian wine country, but I don't think we've ever been in the middle of a working harvest like this. While watching the bottling machine get its cleaning, we struck up a conversation with an American guy there with his son. They were touring through Alsace before his son was meeting someone in Zurich. They were at the end of their time here, while we were just in the beginning. We told them of our route, but they said their favorite town so far was right here in Ribeauville!
As we strolled our way back down Grand Rue, it was easy to see his point. We haven't seen much of the area yet to compare, but Ribeauville seems to be an ideal Alsatian town. It was big enough to have much to offer, yet small enough to still have that little-town feel. Ribeauville had the old colorful buildings, lots of little shops, restaurants interspersed along the street with wineries, pretty squares and fountains... this town really had everything we imagined Alsace to be. One of my favorite sights was looking down Grand Rue to the west, where the street would dip and disappear into the vineyard-covered hillside beyond, which rose to a tree-lined peak atop of which sat striking castle ruins. We stopped back at the little pretzel bakery and got a keugelhopf. The soft brioche was topped with a ring of almonds and dusted with powdered sugar, and each bite gave a nice grapey sweetness from the raisins. I think this is the perfect wine country snack! We enjoyed our "lunch" on the street, looking down the road at the way the hill wore those castle ruins like a crown...
We had noted that there was a great looking distillery in town. In Alsace they do a clear liquor much like the Black Forest schnapps or brandies, which here they also refer to as brandy. Again, this is not at all like what we think of as "brandy" like a Remy Martin or Hennessy, but instead a clear and very potent liquor made usually from fruits that have none of the sweetness left. If you have ever had real German Kirshwasser, you know what I mean. This stuff is firewater! But that shouldn't be read as not being good. Like any particular drink, they do have their place, and that place seems to be as an after dinner digestif. Works for me!
We found the Distillerie Mette down a tiny side alley with an impossibly narrow building. We went through the doors into a large old-world wine warehouse, with dim lighting and casks everywhere. There was one guy there who gave us our tastings as we stood around a barrel – exactly how I had imagined a place like this to be! We sampled a wide variety of these brandies, made from Gewürztraminer grapes, Raspberry and other fruits, Dandelion, and even Garlic! Surprisingly garlic was really good, and while we wished we could get just to have something wild to break out to guests, we could only afford one bottle at the moment. So maybe Garlic would have to wait until next time, for now we chose the one made from our favorite wine- Gewürztraminer!
