Wines & Vines: Alsatian wines: too sweet for their own good?

Just before the 8th annual Nantucket Wine Festival in Massachusetts this past May, I invited friends to dinner. I served two white wines to start things off: a 2000 Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile (Trimbach) and a 2002 Pinot gris Cuvee Laurence (Weinbach). Both bottles represent highly rated Alsatian winemakers, appreciated by connoisseurs and critics.

Despite the richer vintage, the Riesling clocked in at only 12.5% alcohol and tasted dry, while the Pinot gris, in the leaner 2002 vintage, sported 14.5% alcohol, and proved concentrated and lush. I did not want to use "the S word," because I recognized the great balance and quality of the Weinbach, but one of my guests did: "I can't drink that wine; it is too sweet."

On one hand, that comparison was unfair: Alsatian Pinot gris is generally a fuller-bodied varietal in Alsace than is Riesling, and this one in particular was made with more (natural) residual sugar--certainly much more fullbodied than Italian Pinot grigio for those who are not familiar with Alsatian wine. But more and more restaurateurs and sommeliers--both in Europe and in the United States--complain that the wines of Alsace have become unpredictable when it comes to sweetness, especially for customers who are unfamiliar with the region and who expect a dry white wine.

"For the wine drinker, opening a grand cru bottle of Alsace is like playing Russian roulette," wrote Philippe Maurange in the March 2004 issue of one of France's top wine magazines, La Revue du Vin de France.

The Alsace Wine Council, the marketing and research organization for Alsatian wines, has also taken notice. "It is a major problem," said Anne Freyder of the Colmar-based Conseil Interprofessional des Vins d' Alsace (CIVA), which takes pride in its annual August Alsace wine fair, but is not so proud of the confusion created by residual sugar.

"We were at a restaurant recently, and the sommelier told us that a particular wine we had ordered would go well with our food, but it had too much residual sugar," Freyder recalled.

CIVA director Jean-Louis Vezien blames global warming for some of the excess sugar. "More and more, the style seems to be evolving toward wines with greater sweetness levels, and one should put this trend in the context of global warming," he said. "Warmer vintages have resulted in grapes with higher sugar levels, and higher sugar can result in wines with excessive alcohol. Responsible producers seek out balance in making these wines, and will often leave off the fermentation somewhat short of totally dry so as to preserve balance in them. Otherwise they would end up with wines in the range of 15% alcohol or more, particularly for varietals like Pinot gris and Gewurztraminer," he explained.

Beyond global warming, Vezien also notes that many producers use grapes not quite rich enough to be classed as late harvest in their regular wines, as they tend to harvest their vineyards all in one go. "So you find that the classical wines--which should be dry--end up having some residual sugar in them from grapes that have near late-harvest quality."

New Labels For Consumers

To remedy the confusion, the CIVA will adapt European Union legislation to require all Alsatian winemakers to indicate the amount of residual sugar on their wine bottles. For Rieslings with more than 12 grams of residual sugar, and for Gewurztraminers and Pinot gris with more than 18 grams of residual sugar, the wine bottle will include the word "moelleux," or sweet. The CIVA would like to take it a step further by putting numbers from 0 to 9 indicating the level of sweetness, 0 being bone dry and 9 being very sweet.

Since 2001, one great Alsatian wine producer, Olivier Humbrecht of Zind-Humbrecht, has already employed a number system on his bottles from 1 (very dry) to 5 (sweet), and he, like others, would welcome such a system for all Alsatian wines. "My system works very well for my clients," he said.

Michael Flynn, sommelier at the upscale Kinkeads Restaurant in Washington D.C., would also welcome the new labels. "I think that there is an increasing problem for consumers of Alsatian wines in knowing in advance what the residual sugar is likely to be in a wine they purchase," he said.

"Introducing labeling requirements to clarify sweetness levels for the consumer, then, is the right way to go--and a long time in coming," he added. "I think the producers in the region might just find over time that sales will increase, along with the consumer's confidence level in the style of the wines they buy. I just hope they stick with French terminology here, and avoid the pitfalls of the Kabinett, Spatlese, trocken, halbtrocken, etc. nomenclature; sec, demi-sec, and moelleux (or doux) would seem to work just fine," he added.

Back on Nantucket, Jean-Charles Berruet, owner of the upscale French restaurant The Chanticleer, would also welcome more information on the labels. "Look at Vouvray and how the client knows immediately whether the wine is sec, demi-sec or moelleux, and that is how it should be for Alsace," he said, "because sometimes it is hard to sell Alsatian wine."

Higher Yields, Added Sugar

Known for wines that can be voluptuous and rich in style, but also for exceptionally low and concentrated yields, Humbrecht blames the confusion over residual sugar, at least in part, on increasing yields amongst lesser wine producers--who then add sugar in a process known as chaptalization to make up for the diluted quality of the wines.

The French appellation system has officially recognized some 50 grand cru vineyards in Alsace--vineyards that possess exceptional viticulture soils--but a common criticism of many of those wines is the lack of firm legislation limiting the yields. Over the past two decades, yields have increased by almost 12%, according to CIVA statistics.

"The problem is that you have many producers who refuse to admit that they have residual sugar after they chaptalize their wine," Humbrecht said.

Known for his leaner, drier style, Jean Trimbach agrees with Humbrecht, and even refuses to employ the grand cru label, even though some of his wines come from officially recognized grand cru vineyards. "The system permits growers to make as much as 80 or even 100 hectoliters (1 hectoliter = 26.4 gallons) of wine per hectare (1 hectare = 2.47 acres), which is a very high figure," he laments. Many top wineries in Alsace average 30 to 35 hectoliters per hectare, with naturally concentrated sugar.

"So you have some producers putting grand cru on their label, but the wine cannot possibly reflect the soil or grand cru vineyard because the yields are much too high," Trimbach explained.

A Question Of Balance

According to Laurence Faller of Domaine Weinbach, which makes some of the most graceful and varied wines of Alsace--from dry Riesling to a sweeter Pinot gris--the problem is not necessarily whether or not the wine was chaptalized, but whether the wine is balanced.

"The new labels planned to indicate residual sugar do not seem to take into account acidity levels as is done in Germany," she said. "For example, a Riesling with 10 grams of residual sugar in 1996 with very high acidity would taste dry, while a Riesling with the same amount of residual sugar in warmer years with less acidity, such as 1997 or 2000, would taste much rounder."

Furthermore, chaptalized wines are not necessarily unbalanced, she said. "Take, for example, a Riesling harvested at 12% potential alcohol and chaptalized to 12.8%, then fermented to 12.5% with just 5 grams of residual sugar ... (it) would be balanced, as opposed to a Riesling harvested with 14% potential alcohol and fermented just up to 12.5% with 25 grams of residual sugar, which could be unbalanced."

And there are different criteria for what it means to be balanced, she added. For example, most Weinbach Rieslings are dry. As for the Pinot gris, the Cuvee Catherine is the driest at between 9 and 13 grams of residual sugar, while the Cuvee Laurence, which I had served on Nantucket in May, contains between 30 and 40--certainly balanced, but on the sweeter end of the balance scale.

Faller's suggestion concerning the two wines I had served seemed logical: "It would have been necessary to have served the appropriate food for each wine: a fish filet for the drier Trimbach Riesling and duck with spices and honey with the sweeter Pinot gris, for example."

Still, for many uninitiated palates, sweeter Alsatian white wine is a surprise, and even Trimbach says that the word "balanced" is sometimes abused by some winemakers to hide excessive residual sugar: "Of course balance is the key, and I repeat, yes, balance is the key, but some winemakers take this excuse--the balance excuse--to still leave in too much residual sugar," he said.

The tendency for most white wine drinkers to lean toward drier white wine perhaps explains the success of Trimbach's leaner and drier style in Massachusetts. Lisa Kolp, sales associate with Ruby Wines, one of the state's largest wine importers, agreed that Trimbach is a wine that is known for its balance and dry quality--and which has always sold well. "Of all the wines from Alsace, Trimbach represents the largest percentage that we sell in Massachusetts," Kolp said, "so that definitely does tell you that the Massachusetts wine drinker likes that dry style and will continue to buy it."

But for other observers, the fuss over residual sugar is not a big deal. "People who truly love Alsace understand the region," said Paul Mullin, sales representative for another state distributor, United Liquors. "I do not know if that area is growing (exports of Alsatian wine to the U.S. have remained more or less stable over the past five years, with the U.S. being the No. 5 export market for Alsace). For the sweeter-end wines, I would not go as far as having a roast with them. For the most part, that would not be your option. With spicier foods they are absolutely beautiful," he said.

Part of the problem, according to Mullin, who has been in the wine trade for more than 20 years, is a lack of effective self-promotion. "To me, Alsace really has not done anything for itself to promote the region. I wish they would do more--if people had a better understanding of the region and those wines, then people would appreciate it more. That can be said for a lot of wine regions in the world."

(Panos Kakaviatos, former wine writer for The Nantucket Independent on Nantucket Island, currently works in Germany for the Associated Press. He has been writing professionally about wine and the wine market for various media for the past four years, after having also worked and tasted extensively in both Alsace and Bordeaux. Contact him through edit@winesandvines.com.)