David's Diary: Monday, Sept. 24, 2001

Eating and Drinking In Alsace

The Alsace region has been part of France for many centuries, but its close proximately to Germany gives it a unique flavor. The wineglasses served in restaurants and cafes all have a green stem. Alsacian wine is named for the grape varieties. While this is common in other parts of the world, it is unusual in France. Typical Alsacian wines are Reisling, Sylvaner, Pinot blanc, Tokay Pinot gris, and Pinot noir.

The best known food specialty is choucroute -- we would call it sauerkraut and is typically served with three or four different kinds of ham and sausage. The cabbage is typically cooked in Alsacian wine. The cheese of the region is Munster, which is a semi-soft cheese with an orange colored skin. At first I found it a bit strong (which is unusual for me, since I generally like strong cheeses), but I've got to like it. At restaurants, Munster is served with cumin and a few cumin seeds sprinkled on a bite of Munster cheese with bread makes for a tasty treat.

Neuer Suesser

A special treat at this time of year is the first pressing of the grapes which are bottled and called Neuer Suesser. The juice is left for a short time and then bottled. You buy it chilled and while the top looks sealed like a normal wine bottle, we learned that it isn't. Before we got the bottle of Neuer Suesser to the car we had shaken it a bit. Bubbles instantly appeared and a little bit of juice worked its way out the top of the bottle. We all had to take turns licking the bottle to sample the taste and afterwards we were sure to store it upright in the car. It turns out that there is no cork -- only the plastic wrap keeps the liquid in the bottle.

Neuer Suesser has little alcohol, which means that the kids get to have a taste. Allen promptly decided after one taste that it wasn't to his liking, but Kevin managed half of a glass. Jocelyn dug in and enjoyed her sample. Neuer Suesser does not taste like wine, but it does have a little mustiness from the beginnings of fermentation. The taste is sweet, but not like grape juice. It's one of those things that you really have to try and since it is only available for one or two weeks every fall, we were lucky to have got our timing right.