Alsatian White Wine Review

Divya Gugnani: Looking at the museum of modern art, the modern in New York City offers a tasting journey of clean, intense flavors, paired with an international wine list, 1600 selections deep. I’m Divya Gugnani, here to taste the crisp, dry aromatic whites with Alsatian flare. So let’s go behind the burner and meet — to get the handle on the skinny white bottles. So I’m here with wine director, Belinda Chang. Belinda, winter, spring, summer or fall, I love me an Alsatian whites. Belinda Chang: It’s one of my favorites. We’re a little obsessed with Alsace whites here as our chef is from Alsace. Divya Gugnani: Oh that’s perfect. So really got the inside scoop. So tell me Belinda Alsace, where is it, what is it and what makes it different from Germany? Belinda Chang: So we’re talking about a small region in the northeast of France where we definitely have really cool climate. It’s surrounded by the mountains. So it’s really special because it has what they call the rain shadow effect which protects all the vineyards and makes all the grapes really happy and makes really great and happy wines for us to drink. Divya Gugnani: So you have a lot of people who speak both French and German and you’ll definitely see the influence and the choice of great things that they have in Alsace. And so tell me a little bit about these bottles. When I see Alsatian whites, you recognize them immediately from the tall, skinny, white bottles. Belinda Chang: So here’s a little tip. I always look for the tall, skinny, white wine bottle. I look for sort of the holy quartet, they’ve got Muscat, they’ve got Reisling, they’ve got Gewurztraminer and they’ve got Pinot Gris and all in dry styles which is what can be a little scary, another tip that German wines where we’re looking at Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese and what? Divya Gugnani: Right. Belinda Chang: Here in Alsace we’re looking — Divya Gugnani: They’re really tough ones to pronounce. Belinda Chang: Yeah, we’re looking at great varietals labeled and also we know that what’s in these bottles is going to be dry. Divya Gugnani: Exactly, so the tip here is that in Alsace, they actually label the wines by great varietals. Belinda Chang: And they have two sweet styles as another tip. If you all looking for a sweet styled white wine from Alsace, look for VT which stands for Vendange Tardive or for SGN which stands for Sélection de Grains Nobles which is the really special stuff that’s going to be really sweet. Divya Gugnani: Belinda, what are you really like to drink? What are the drinks, I want to know. Belinda Chang: Yeah. Well, you know what I really love aside from sort of the holy quartet where we have the Gewurztraminer, the Muscat, the Reisling and also the Pinot Gris is blends. We have a really cool one here at the modern. It’s a classic take — classic blend where they use all these four great varietals and it makes food friendly. Another tip, if you have a dish with a lot of different flavors, go from multi varietals blend because something in the blend is going to work with the dish. So we’ve got Gewurztraminer here, we’ve got Reisling here. Divya Gugnani: You can’t go wrong if use the blend. Belinda Chang: It makes it so much easier. I’m obsessed with blended wines especially blends of the aromatic whites. Well you know, the Alsace state they love to drink and they also love to eat so we’re talking about things like if you’re going with classic cuisines and matching you know what grows together goes together. We’re talking about charcuterie, plates of sausages, plates of cured meats. Divya Gugnani: Sausages are perfect with — Belinda Chang: Yeah which sounds a little counterintuitive, sometimes people are afraid to do meat with white wine but another tip, meat with white wine can be really amazing. Divya Gugnani: It can and I love your other tip of what grows together goes together. So what else do you like to drink? Belinda Chang: We definitely also brought out some other aromatic whites from other parts of the world so they’re doing some really neat stuff in other countries. Albarino is one that they think is related to Reisling in Spain. There’s a lot of really great value Albarino. This is a producer called La Cana. Most of it has grown in the north of Spain where you have kind of cooler climate areas. I also brought out one that we love here at the Modern from Argentina — another one that’s a Reisling relative. There’s all these great Reisling relatives out there where they do dry styles and this is from Finca El Origen in Salta which is a great region for this great varietals. Again — Divya Gugnani: So that’s wonderful too. So I’m very used to ordering Alsatian wines. I got my Reisling, I got my — I order my Muscat sometimes but you can really branch out if you like those flavors. Go to another region and try those. Try something similar. Try something in the family or made in that same style. Belinda Chang: Yeah, just tell your sommelier or your favorite person at your retail shop that you love Reisling but dry styles and they can definitely introduce you to a lot of different great varietals that are out there. A sommelier favorite, Grüner Veltliner. Divya Gugnani:: Of course! Belinda Chang: Everybody is obsessed with this one. Divya Gugnani: I feel like it’s a very multipurpose wine. You can pair it with—it’s very food-friendly. You can have it with lots of different types of cuisine. Belinda Chang: Yeah. Incredible food match, vegetables can typically be one of the hardest things to pair wines with, and Grüner Veltliner is like the Terminator of pairing of professionals. There’s something about this white wine that makes it work with anything green. It’s got a little peppery spice to it. Again, it’s a dry, crisp, lean white. They rarely put oak on it and that also makes it really food-friendly. Divya Gugnani: That’s wonderful! Thank you so much Belinda for your tips. Belinda Chang: My pleasure. Divya Gugnani: Stay tuned to Behind the Burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire.