Last but not least, it wouldn't be Alsace without

... the vineyards :)

This is a pic of my cousin's vineyards (the Riesling section, I believe), outside their home in Turkheim. He and his wife have moved to doing wine the natural way -- not using any chemical products at all, earning them the label of "vins biologiques." It's a lot of work, most of it manual, to tend to vines; at the moment, they are spending about 6 hrs/day on their 60 ares (whatever that is in English metrics) as things are growing like crazy right noz. Some facts:

- if you go 'bio', all your plots must be done in that way (to avoid contamination in the processing area).
- the rows between vines alternate between grass and worked earth (to avoid competition for water).
- stones are left in the earth: they retain the heat of daytime sun and release it at night, helping the grapes mature and sweeten.
- the leaves of vines have to be plucked manually to "air" the vine but not overexpose the grapes too much.
- each day, the vines have to be threaded through wires so that they grow straight up.
- at the begining of the growth season, one branch is chosen on each vine to carry the growth. It is manually bent backwards into an arc and tied down to allow for even growth upwards. All other branches are pared down.
- if a disease affects vines that are "bio", you can only use a mixture of copper and sulfur (at no more than 10% strength) to treat the vines and as a surface treatment only or else you lose the "bio" label.

ps: we sampled all four of their wines and they were to die for :))

pps: we fly back to the States tomorrow :((