David M. Bueker wrote:Now that I have access to Dirler-Cade I have upped my Alsace consumption again. Love the wines, but man are they hard to find.
I had a wonderful experience at Dirler-Cadé this summer: We had booked a visit for Saturday afternoon - they said it was in their harvest season, but they could accommodate us then. Unfortunately, the person who was supposed to meet us with the key to our apartment in Colmar at noon didn't show up until 5pm, so we had to reschedule until Monday morning.
Sunday night, a part for my CPAP machine gave up the ghost and after chasing around Colmar for a replacement Monday morning, we finally arrived at DIrler-Cadé at 11:45, even though they closed for lunch at noon (or so we thought). It turned out that their hours had changed to close at 11:45 and we arrived too late. However, Mme Dirler saw us arrive, and once we explained why we were late, agreed to let us taste 2 or 3 wines, even though it was her lunch hour [in the middle of harvest, remember].
Forty-five minutes later, after she'd poured us 17 wines, including 12 grands crus (one an SGN) and one from 1998 that she'd opened for a visiting wine writer, showed us the soil from each of her vineyards, and discussed with us the difficulties of exporting wine to Ontario's alcohol monopoly (we're from Toronto), we left, happily clutching several of her bottles and very impressed with our reception.
This is a "must visit" winery if you're in Alsace. Just make sure you reserve a time first.