2018-06-25 Alsace Wine Route Domaine Xavier Muller to Wassler, Northalten

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Alsace Wine Route Domaine Xavier Muller to Wassler, Northalten

Alsace Wine Route by Motorhome

An overcast day begins at Domaine Muller with coffee, there are a lot of vehicles coming and going to the winery. After planning our route we drove into Marlenheim, parked in the centre and explored the town. I purchased a French stick loaf of bread from an artisan bakery, but did not think it was worth the €1.70 that it cost. Gill usually makes our bread, and my grandparents had a bakers’ shop where they made the bread by hand, so I feel qualified to judge bread.

We left and set off along our chosen route to explore the Alsace Wine Route, after a short drive we arrived at Wangen, where we were confronted by an extremely narrow archway entrance to the town, we decided that discretion was best and did not attempt to pass through the arch (see photos below). We made a detour, but the road was so narrow and overgrown that we turned back and decided to attempt the archway.

Gill got out of the Hymer and guided me forward very slowly, I’m pleased to say that we did pass through into Wangen without any contact with the arch.

Wangen is a pretty town, but difficult to drive through because of parked cars, and another difficult bridge when leaving the town. As we continued we passed various signs to wineries, but experience has taught us that deviations from our route can be a waste of time. More than once we have followed signs but never found the destination, or found it closed. Our rule now is that unless we can see the place or there is a distance stated we don’t go off our route.

The Alsace Wine Route is not well signposted. Frequently the signs are hard to see, the roads are not always well-suited to motorhomes, they are adequate for cars, but present interesting challenges for motorhomes. Often the signs are in the towns, making stopping and sampling the wines difficult. The drive through the countryside was very pleasant. Our destination today was the winery of Wassler Jean-Marie Earl, located in the small town of Northalten. There is a large piece of ground behind the winery with hardstanding for motorhomes, electric points, disposal facilities and a children’s playground. The overnight charge is €7 including electric (2018-06).

In the tasting room at Wassler there was us and a German couple tasting the wines. The woman behind the counter would swap between German for the other couple, and French for us, I translated for Gill although some of the words went over my head. As time went on the woman spoke less French and more German, but we don’t need to words to know whether we like the wines or not.

We tasted a whole variety ranging from the low-price young wines up to the Grand Cru. On balance we though the lower-priced wines we better value, so that’s what we purchased, a dozen bottles for €96, plus another single bottle for the evening.

A very pleasant evening at Wassler Jean-Marie Earl sitting on the grass next to our Hymer motorhome, sipping wine and eating.