| Alsace | Bordeaux | Burgundy | Champagne | Loire Valley | Rhône Valley |

• Primarily a white-wine region, with some red, rosé, sparkling and sweet wines also produced
• Situated in eastern France on the river Rhine and borders Germany
• Wine growing areas in Alsace is determined by two main factors, the Vosges Mountains in the west and the Rhine River in the east
• Vosges Mountains tend to shelter Alsace from rain and maritime influence, and the region is therefore rather dry and sunny
• Vineyards are concentrated in a narrow strip, running in a roughly north-south direction, on the lower eastern slopes of the Vosges
• Grapes grown in Alsace include Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris (Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Muscat to a lesser extent)
• Most are dry and medium bodied, with some being ageworthy (smoky, honey, and petrol)
• Almost all production in Alsace is of AOC wine, since there is no Vin de pays region which covers Alsace
• There is a legal requirement for bottling Alsace wine in tall bottles commonly called flûtes (Bottle type is actually called Vin du Rhin, i.e., “Rhine wine bottle”, by AOC rules)

• Wines produced under three different Appellation d’Origine Contrôlées (AOCs):
  1. Alsace AOC for white, rosé and red wines
  2.  Alsace Grand Cru AOC for white wines from certain classified vineyards
  3. Crémant d’Alsace AOC for sparkling wines

• There are two late harvest classifications:
  1.  Vendange Tardive (VT): means “late harvest” (which in German would be Spätlese) VT, however, is more similar to Auslese in Germany
  2.  Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN): means “selection of noble berries”, i.e. grapes affected by  noble rot Similar to a German Beerenauslese

• For both VT and SGN, Alsace wines tend to be higher in alcohol and therefore slightly lower in sugar than the corresponding German wines