Blending Wines from Alsace
Discover our wines with exceptional and unique blends, which will accompany any type of dish in your daily life.
Blending... A family story!
For Materne HAEGELIN, blending has always had a special place. Materne learned how to make wine by watching his father make wine for the Winstub "Restaurant de la Poste".
In our house, Edel has a special place and remains our everyday wine. It is the companion of the cooks for the elaboration of traditional Alsatian recipes (Sauerkraut, Baekahoffa, coq au vin...) and a friend of the friends' tables with whom we share a bit of cold meat and cheese.
To highlight this tradition of blending in our house, we always elaborate our Edelzwicker but also our "4" from now on.
The particularities of Alsatian blended wines
The Edelzwicker designates any blend of white grape varieties of AOC Alsace, without obligation to mention the percentage of each. The mention of the vintage is also optional. The grape varieties can be vinified separately or together.
The Edelzwicker is a blend that requires an empirical knowledge of the wine to know which grape varieties to blend and in what proportions.
The name comes from "Edel" for "noble" and "Zwicker" for "assemblage", because at the time the grape varieties used for the assemblage were noble and came from the same plot. At that time, there were two categories of blended wines: Edelzwicker and Zwicker (which has now disappeared). The Zwicker could contain all the Alsatian grape varieties, while the Edelzwicker only contained the noble grape varieties (Muscat, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer).
Edelzwicker wines represent only 1% of the Alsatian production.
Attention, the Edelzwicker must be differentiated from another very well known blending wine in Alsace: the Gentil. The latter is defined by an Interprofessional Charter controlling its conditions of elaboration. It is a blend of wines of superior quality. The Gentil must contain at least 50% of noble grape varieties (Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer), the rest being Sylvaner, Chasselas or Pinot Blanc. Before blending the different grape varieties, it was essential for Le Gentil that the wines were vinified as single-variety wines and that they carried the AOC Alsace label. The 20's were the peak of the rise of this blending wine. Today, the production of the Gentil is low, it is only made by tradition by some winemakers.
What to pair our Alsace blend wines with ?
Our Edelzwicker is the everyday wine par excellence. Very nice as an aperitif with a zest of blueberry liqueur or vine peaches, it will accompany simple and convivial dishes such as salads, cold cuts and baeckaoffa. It will be perfect for small snacks with friends. It will succeed your marinades without any doubt.
The "4", as for him, can allow itself many agreements by its composition of 4 noble grape varieties (Muscat, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer). Thus, it will go well with fondues, raclettes, hard cheeses. It will also accompany exotic dishes, smoked sea fish and game pâtés. You can taste it as an aperitif.
Oenological analysis of Edelzwicker
To the eye : Beautiful pale yellow color, yellow reflections.
On the nose : White flowers, white fruits (pear, peach...).
In the mouth : Round and supple mouth with a persistence on the freshness. Fresh and easy to drink wine marked by the fruit. Pleasant thirst-quenching wine.
Oenological analysis the "4
To the eye : Deep yellow
On the nose : Nose dominated by Gewurztraminer, warm notes (turmeric).
In the mouth : Complex and ample, beautiful expression of the 4 grape varieties well present. Rich and beautiful gustatory freshness.