friend visiting Alsace

I would suggest Rolly Gassmann. The style is not bone dry. The wines are good, but also very easily likeable by those who drink occasionally. The tastings are legendary. You will probably be shown a list of around 45 wine, and be persuaded to try all of them. Do not THINK about driving afterwards - even if you spit you will be over the limit.

Apart from that, there are many, many others I could recommend, but it would help if you said a bit more about your friends. How much are they into wine? What styles do they like? Would they be looking to buy, and if so around what price?

I had a great time at Bott-Geyl. They are making very good wines in a large range of qualities and their Cremant d' Alsace is a great bargain sparkler. Nice folks too!

Thanks to both of you, I will certainly pass these on.

Steve I'd love to get some more recs if you've got them. My friends are not wine geeks but do have a fair amount of experience and what I would qualify as sophisticated palates. They're NYers who have spent a lot of time abroad, we've been tasting together for a few days in the Northern Rhone, and have emptied some good bottles together over the years. (I have fond memories of a certain 82 Palmer in the early 90s, although the rest of the evening is blurry!) The parents lived abroad for many years in Kyoto and Paris, Laura grew up in Paris and so speaks passable "NY French". HTH for some recs, and thanks again.

-E

I would have to say that it is really worth going the few miles from the villages you mention which are around Mulhouse to the villages round and to the other side of Colmar, into the best part of Alsace.

I would suggest Scheidecker-Zimmerlin, a small family house in the Rue des Merles, Mittelwihr where you will get a very friendly welcome and some very well priced wines including Mandelberg GCs Riesling and Gewurztraminer as well as Riesling GC Sporen. The generic wines are deliberately made dry with the Reserves having more residual sugars. Recommended to me years ago by Tom Stephenson and we have been regular customers for a long time - give them my best wishes if your friends go there. Otherwise the Turckheim and Bebleneheim cooperatives are good. I hope they have a good trip.

Tim Hartley

OK, here are a few I have visited, and which people generally seem to like:

Trimbach (Austere dry style, which I sometimes like)

Hugel (One of my favourites, but seems to be unfashionable to like them. Richer style)

Zind Humbrecht (If you can get in. Biodynamic)

Caves de Turkheim (A large, modern, but good quality coop)

Paul Blank

Rolly Gassmann (See above)

Josmeyer (Not one of my favourite, but others seem to like it a lot. Biodynamic)

Some smaller, less well-known, places I have enjoyed:

Sipp Mack

Ginglinger-Fix

Marcel Deiss.

And for all of the suggestions: the tourist offices in the area have a leaflet which gives a map with the producers and towns (not full addresses, I think, but enough): even if they check the addresses on line in advance, this will be useful to plan a route.

Thanks again everyone. I will pass along recommendations.

-E