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Dreyfus, Ashby & Co. Main Office 630 3rd Ave Adminstration 50 Avon Meadow Lane
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Dopff & Irion - History
Sheltered by the Vosges mountains, the province enjoys a semi-continental climate with hot summers and long warm autumns, ideal for market gardeners, wine growers and visitors alike. Alsace is an improbably beautiful place, uncharacteristically neat and tidy, the stuff of which fairy tales are made : medieval towns and villages with higgledy-piggledy, half-timbered houses alight in summer with cascading geraniums and petunias ; south facing slopes neatly contoured with row upon row of vines; richly decorated wrought iron inn signs; great wooden doors from beneath which waft insistent, irresistible smells of onion tart, freshly baked bread, new wine, old barrels. There are three big towns in Alsace, the cultural, intellectual and financial center is Strasbourg, the industrial and business center is Mulhouse, the agricultural and wine center is Colmar. The people of Alsace are a sort of crossroads where seriousness and gaiety meet, a, engaging combination of Germanic thouroughness and reliability with French "joie de vivre". Alsace enjoys exceptional soils and a generous climate unite to produce remarkable wines. Protected from oceanic influence by the Vosges mountains, Alsace enjoys practically the lowest rainfall in France (400-500mm per year) and is blessed with a semi-continental climate, sunny, hot and dry. This climate is ideal for slow, extended ripening of the grapes, giving wines with elegant, complex aromas. The geology of Alsace is a genuine mosaic, made up of granite, limestone, gneiss, schist and sandstone. Such varied soils bring out the best in each different grape variety. The vineyards extend for one hundred kilometres from north to south along the eastern foothills of the Vosges, at 200-400m of altitude, covering an area of 14500 hectares in production.
Contrary to other French wine regions, the wines of Alsace are not named after the villages or vineyards from which they come, but after the grape variety. Alsace wines are made from seven varieties : Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Muscat d'Alsace, Tokay Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir. All must by law be bottled in the region of production, in the traditional
slender Alsace bottle. Muscat d'Alsace is dry and very different from
the sweet Muscats of the South of France. Refreshing and easy to enjoy, it is lively and sometimes vivacious. Pinot Blanc, well-rounded yet delicate, combines freshness and softness, representing thehappy medium in the range of Alsace wines. Tokay Pinot Gris develops a characteristic roundness and opulence. Rich,
full-bodied and with a long finish, its complex aroma is reminiscent of
woodland and is sometimes slightly smoky. Riesling is dry, refined and delicately fruity, with an elegant bouquet of mineral or floral notes. Acknowledged as one of the finest white varietals in the world, it is a gastronomic wine par excellence. Gewurztraminer, full-bodied and well-structured, is probably the best-known Alsace wine. Its intense bouquet displays rich aromas of fruit, flowers and spices (gewurz = spicy). Powerful and seductive, sometimes slightly sweet, it can often age well.
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The
village was mentioned for the first time under the name " Rochovilare
" in documents of 1049. During the 11th century it belonged, as part
of it, to the property of the Counts of Eguisheim. Chief town in the 12th
century of a seigniory belonging to the Lords of " Horbourg ",
who fortified it in 1291 and conferred the status of town on it in 1320.
In 1324, the " Horbourg " sold all their possessions to the
Counts of " Wurtemberg " and died out little afterwards. 
The
Wines of Alsace
