We tried this wine at Maison Antony's:
1. Barmes-Buecher 7 Grains (13%; blend 7 permitted Alsace grape varieties) Wettlolsheim 2012: Med.gold color; very perfumey/aromatic floral/GWT/lychee/pineapple/mango beautiful nose; lightly tart near-dry rich/lush floral/perfumey/GWT/lychee/pineapply/mango light mineral/stony textured/mouthfilling flavor; very long/lingering ripe/floral/GWT/lychee/mango fairly tart rich/lush bit stony/mineral complex finish; the best example of an Alsace Edelzwicker that I've ever had at a stupid/silly price. Euros 7.00
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. We were staying for 4 days in Basel w/ Susan's friend, Jean, as she showed us the wonders of that part of Suisse. Absolutely amazing scenery/amazing town. One day, Jean suggested we cross the border to nearby Alsace and visit a cheese affineur, Maison Antony. I'd never heard of the place, so what the heck??? Turns out it was one of the best experiences on our trip to Europe. This part of Alsace is South of Mulhouse in the Ht.Rhein and there's not a whole lot of interest here, wine-wise.
M.Bernard Antony, in the town of Vieux-Ferrette, South of Mullhouse, is regarded a as a cheese affineur of the same level of respect as Herve Mons or PierreAndrouet, I later found out. You can find out about his operation at:
Antony/Frommage
It is now run by Bernard and his son, Jean-Francois. They have 7 different controlled cellars in which they do their affinage. They make none of their own cheeses. It is a very small/family run operation. As best I can tell, you can only purchase there at the cellar. They mostly supply cheese plates for various great restaurants around the World. Restaurant Boloud in NYC is the only one in the USofA, I believe. They also have an amazingly good wine shop there at the property, mostly w/ wines of Alsace, including some older ones.
As we entered the facility, we were met by a large case of cheeses, manned by Muriel. I've seen bigger cheese spreads in Murray's and other cheese shops. But when I started to look closely, I realized that this was, indeed, something special. There were a lot of cheeses I'd never heard of. So we had Muriel prepare two cheese sampler plates for the three of us and we adjourned to the nearby cafe room.
Jean-Francois himself came in w/ a carte listing the cheeses and proceeded to explain them to us. They were: Brillat-Savarin/Buchette de Riou chevre/Reblochon/Comte 2013/Chevretin de Moselle chevre/Morbier/Munster/Epoisse/Forme d'Albert. This list only had 2 unknown cheeses to me. But, I have to say, these cheeses tasted like no others I've had in the USofA.
Brillat-Savarin is usually (here) a nice creamy triple-cream that's a bit on the bland side and its distinguishing feature is its butterfat content. This Antony version was like none I've had in the USofA. It had more flavor and complexity that I'd never found in B-S.
I seldom buy Epoisses for my tastings because this washed-rind cheese stinks up the entire house. When I do serve it, I usually don my Haz-Mat suit, handle it w/ lengthy tongs, and admonish people to not, under any circumstances, touch the rind. This Epoisses was totally different. You could actually eat the rind...and it tasted good. The interior was, again, packed w/ flavor and quite complex. A real eye-opener.
The same was true of all the other cheeses as well. Unlike any I've ever experienced in the USofA. The experience was totally mind-boggling.
As we were tasting the cheeses and chatting w/ Jean-Francois, his father drove up into the parking lot in front. Susan recognized him from the pictures and rushed out to greet him and chat him up, as is her wont. So he, too, sat down a bit and chatted w/ us. He speaks (essentially) no English, but Susan's French is so good that communicating was not a problem. Both Father & Son seemed to be genuinely pleased to entertain visitors from so far away and didn't mind spending the time w/ us. In fact, after we bought our cheese and wine and prepared to depart, it was 1:00pm, over an hour after their usual noon closing time.
This visit w/ affineurs Bernard and Jean-Francois Antony was easily the most incredible cheese experience I've ever had. For anyone doing a wine-visit to Alsace, I would highly recommend spending a day to drive down to Vieux-Ferrette to visit M.Antony and do the cheese tasting. I guarantee you will not regret it.
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2. Barmes-Buecher: We we sat down to sample the fromages, I wanted to order a glass of wine to accompany them. This being Alsace, I, of course, ordered a glass of GWT. But Jean-Francois wanted to steer me to something he felt would showcase the cheeses better. His choice of the 7 Grains was exactly the right one. This is a B-B blend of all the 7 grapes allowed in Alsace. It was formerly called Edelzwicker, but they now call it 7 Grains, presumably to indicate it is something a step above most other Edelzwickers.
This is a fairly traditional producer I've had a number of times before and liked their wines fairly well. But this (not so simple) Edelzwicker was easily the best Edelzwicker I've ever had and the best B-B I've yet tried. Something to be said about drinking a wine on its home soil I suppose.
Tom