Albert Seltz at his domaine in Mittelbergheim.

Albert Seltz is different. It took him a little while to warm up to us and I think it's because he was worrying about impressing us, something he takes special care not to do. The seemingly indifferent Seltz, however, not only spent two hours with us in his cellar where we tasted his delicious and unusual Sylvaners, but he also ate lunch with us where he was subjected to a rather difficult blind tasting by the sommelier (Seltz excels at blind tasting by the way).

Some of his unbottled wines appeared to have a lot of debris in suspension, even though some had been in tank for nearly two years. When we asked Seltz to explain this, he shrugged his shoulders and said "that's my wine." Then we went upstairs to taste through multiple vintages of Sylvaner Grand Cru Zotzenberg. This wine was sold as Sono Contento (Italian for "I'm happy") Vieilles Vignes until 2005 because the Grand Cru of Zotzenberg only became a Grand Cru recently (the first for Sylvaner), and Albert Seltz was of course instrumental in lobbying for that change with the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine ("INAO"). Organic farming, minimal cellar intervention, lees contact, and the use of indigenous yeast all make for individual wines. To miss Seltz's Sylvaner is to have missed one of the wine world's loveliest offerings.

Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss in Andlau.

Marc Kreydenweiss produces a style of Alsatian wine that I enjoy very much. These wines are leaner, more linear, and even austere at times. They are more friendly with food and the Grand Crus of Wiebelsberg, Moenchberg, and Kastelberg are all very clear expressions of their terroirs. Marc Kreydenweiss was one of the pioneers of biodynamics in Alsace and he now has many followers. There is also a cuvée of Riesling and Pinot Gris called Clos du Val d'Eléon which Kreydenweiss claims to be from a terroir similar to that of Nicolas Joly's Coulée de Serrant.

Our last visit in Alsace's Bas-Rhin before traveling to the Pfalz, the very pure wines of Domaine André Ostertag.

André Ostertag uses some barrique with the Pinot family (Blanc, Gris, and Noir), but the remainder are wines of purity and precision. The domaine has divided its production into three categories, the vins de fruit (fruit wines), the vins de pierre (stone wines), and vins de temps (time wines). In addition to the oaked Pinot wines, there is an old-vine Sylvaner, and Rieslings from Grand Crus Fronholz and Muenchberg, all of which are wonderfully pure and dry. Ostertag is yet another Alsatian proponent of biodynamics, although he has been quoted as saying in Andrew Jefford's The New France that he detests Nicolas Joly of Coulée de Serrant.