Why is Colmar Interesting?

On wine, cobblestones, and Alsace

Graydon Gordian (GG) works and lives in Atlanta, GA. He’s written WITIs on Jazz, Christmas Eve in Uruguay, and the NBA.

Graydon here. Colmar, France is not cool, at least not in the sense people commonly use that term. Eater does not have an article on the best restaurants in town. The New York Times has never sketched out what you could do if you found yourself there for 36 hours. Coffee shops with white subway tiles and hulking La Marzocco machines are no longer trendy, but that trend never made it to Colmar in the first place. (At least they hadn’t arrived the last time I visited, the year before the pandemic started.) There is a sort of person that you bump into in Jose Ignacio or Tulum or Marrakech that you most likely won’t find walking the cobblestone streets of central Alsace.

Colmar’s La Petite Venise

However, there is something magical about Colmar. The brightly colored, timber accented homes that line the streets feel more like a movie set than a real town. (This area was the inspiration for the village in Beauty and the Beast.) It’s this fairytale feel that brings families from around Europe to this small city, where they munch on baeckeoffe and stroll with their children down La Petite Venise, a small canal that runs through the center of town.

But for me, it’s not (just) the dreamy residential architecture that makes Colmar special. It’s the wine. Alsace is unlike any other wine region in France. Tucked behind the Vosges range, it is the driest winegrowing region in the country, shielded by the mountains from storms blowing in off the Atlantic. It is best known for growing grapes — Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Silvaner, Pinot Blanc — less closely associated with France than Germany (where Pinot Blanc is known as Weißburgunder). And it is among the most geologically diverse regions in all of Europe. As you move from the mountainside vineyards into the gentle foothills and finally onto the planes that sweep along the Rhine, the composition of the earth ranges immensely: steep, siliceous soil turns to calcareous-sandstone and marly-clay as the slopes grow gentler, and then to alluvium and loam as the banks of the river near. This soil variety gives the wine made in each little town, many of which are near Colmar, its own sense of place.

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But you can of course get the wonderful wines of Alsace without making the hike to within a stone’s throw of the French/German border. The reason to go to Colmar and surrounding towns like Ammerschwihr, Wettolsheim, and Dambach-la-Ville is who you will drink the wine with. Far away from the professional tours and well appointed tasting rooms of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne, Alsace’s wine industry is made up almost entirely of small, family-run wineries. Actually getting in touch with local winemakers takes a bit of effort: You are gonna have to dial a number and hope your French is good enough to schedule a visit, or fill out a contact form and pray that someone is checking their email that week. But send out enough feelers, and you’ll find yourself sharing a glass in some special places with some special people.

Take Christian Binner, Alsace’s official entry in the cool kid wine scene. Their wines are represented stateside by chic importer Jenny & Francois, and their sub-label Les Vins Pirouettes is beloved by the natural wine crowd. You can bike from Colmar to their location in Ammerschwihr in about 30 minutes. (WITI contributor Mark Slavonia insists you know that Alsace is among his favorite biking regions in the world.) Upon arrival, you’ll find yourself not at a storefront or vineyard but what appears to be their home. It could be a very homey winery, I’m not sure to be quite honest, but the room next to the tasting room looked to have well loved couches and other living room staples. Mrs. Binner is happy to pour you a few glasses and tell you all about how her kids are doing in between tasting notes. (Last time I stopped by, their son was studying abroad in Dallas! Maybe he can write a WITI on why it’s interesting, because I sure can’t.)

Your author, across the street from the Binner home, thinking about wine.

Just south of Colmar, little more than an hour walk from the center of the city, can be found Domaine Albert Mann, one of the great winemakers of Alsace. Once you are done tasting some of the best Riesling in a region known for the grape, you’re welcome to linger in the courtyard outside their house and have an extra glass, just as long as you are willing to help their niece work on her English.

And if you decide to venture a bit farther from the city limits, the warm-hearted duo of Florian and Mathilde Hartwig will be thrilled to welcome you to their winery in Dambach-la-Ville, about a 30 minute drive north of Colmar. I think about going back to Alsace simply so I can try their Grand Cru Frankstein Riesling again — it is perhaps my favorite wine I have ever tasted.

So yes, Colmar is not cool. But on a sunny Alsace day, with a glass of dry riesling in your hand and a smiling winemaker by your side, it can be magical. (GG)

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Graydon (GG)

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