Morning in Riquewihr
23 May 2018
Last time in Alsace, Riquewihr was one of the towns we really felt we did not have much time to explore. Today we would make amends for that as we woke early and headed straight down to the village. Not that it was far, as Riquewihr is only about a fifteen-minute drive from where we park in Ribeauville. Amazing, really... so many of our favorite little villages are all so very close to each other. That’s one of the things I really love about Alsace!
We parked at the main lot just past Brasserie du Vignoble (we’ll see you later on, Bra’v) and walked our way through the tower and into town. Riquewihr’s main road is the Rue du Général de Gaulle, a fairly wide cobblestoned pedestrian street that has a gradual uphill slope as you head from the east to west side as we were going. Little side streets and alleys shoot off from the main road and head to the road beyond through openings in the medieval walls. This town is so beautiful in its simplicity, and while it is the smallest of the main towns we are visiting, it really doesn’t feel that way. Maybe it’s because the main road is so wide?
We walked the length of the road and passed through the tower at the west end, which was closed off the last time we were here. Just beyond the gate there is a little park with old grape harvesting equipment on display, and a really nice view of the outer part of the walls. We sat with a snack, looking at the windows going around the outer part of the town. Could you imagine living in a place literally built into the fortified wall of a medieval village?
We stopped at the window of a Biscuiterie for a coffee and a pretzel (two of my favorite things under one roof!) and strolled down through those little side alleys to take pictures. We passed by La Table du Gourmet, a Michelin-starred restaurant where Raymond Blanc cooked in one of his specials. Some of these starred restaurants have lunch menus that are more affordable than their usual pricey fare, and we kept saying we should have one starred meal whilst in France. We still always prefer the laid-back atmosphere (and the much lower price) of a Bistro or Winstub to the upscale fancy restaurants. Maybe someday, right?
We found a pottery shop the last time we were here and bought a small kugelhopf pan to bring home. We’ve actually used that little pan a good bit, maybe even more than expected, as we do love our kugelhopf. It was a nice yet functional souvenir. Sometimes we wished we had one that wasn’t as small though, so we headed back down the stairs to look for a larger pan to match our little one. The shop was amazing! It had Alsatian handmade clay pottery up front, with our kugelhopf pans but also dishes for backhoffe and other local specialties. But if you go through the little doorway that leads to the back room, you step in to a deep, cluttered, fascinating antique shop. We know people who would be able to spend their whole day just in this little section of the underground store! For us however, we went for a browse then back to the front where we bought our larger clay pottery kugelhopf pan. Now for the fun part – figuring out how to get it home without breaking it!
For all of the French wine we do get back home, only a very small percentage of that is Alsatian. There are tons of wine choices from Bordeaux or Burgandy, many more still from other areas as well, but only usually one or two choices from Alsace. One of the main Alsatian wineries we can find at home is Trimbach back in Ribeauville. We stopped there last time. The other we see frequently is Hugel, which is from right here in the center of Riquewihr!
We walked in to Hugel’s little tasting room and were greeted by a wine rep. Unlike many wineries where you basically stand at a bar, Hugel has a separate room that feels like a nice little gathering area. The wines you sample are brought from the back and presented to you with a very thorough description. As we waited to begin our tasting, we looked out the large window onto the main street of Riquewihr. The street sloped down to the gate we first entered, and from our viewpoint we could see out over all the people going about their day. If I was working the winery and found a slow point of the day, this is where I would take my break. I’m sure this is a spectacular people watching spot!
The first wine he brought out was the Pinot Gris. We were excited back on our first time to Alsace because it is known for Riesling and Gewurztraminer, which are some of our favorites... but we were fully taken by surprise by the Alsatian Pinot Gris! We could probably argue now that Alsatian Gris is our favorite kind of wine, and the one we sampled at Hugel was as good as any. We put that one aside to buy a bottle. Next we tried the Gris Reserve- a higher end make- followed by their Gewurztraminer of which we also ordered a bottle. There is nothing else like the spicy, peppery note that lingers on the back of that wine! Last we finished with the Pinot Noir and Pinot Noir Reserve. You really don’t see many red wines here in general, but the primary red in Alsace would be the Pinot Noir. Our appreciation for red wine has certainly grown recently, and we have had some pretty spectacular varieties. We still prefer the whites though, and when we are in the land of the best white wines in the world, it is hard to get excited about the limited reds we are finding. Maybe we’ll make our way to Bordeaux one day and things will be different, but in Alsace we were more than content with sticking to the whites and taking home our two bottles from Hugel!
Most towns in Alsace shut down for an hour or so in the early afternoon, where the people all stop their day to relax and have lunch. Restaurants that stay open serve light snacks and maybe flammenkuche in what the Germans call “Vespers” (I don’t know what it’s called in France). It is kinda like a combination of Spanish siesta and British afternoon tea. Anyway, I always thought it was a nice part of the culture, to take the time to sit back and enjoy life rather than to just scarf your food down while running around at work like we do. It’s common to see little tables set up along the streetside where the people come out and have their lunch outdoors away from work, and enjoy the fresh air while mingling with people from the other shops on their break. And for us, it gave a nice opportunity to stroll back to the car and refresh our meter.
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