Misty towns, dewy hills, drab and dripping with moss and silvery slick water. A sky that is nebulous – oyster gray with washes of a neutral, dormant and cool blue. The roads that only locals follow now, as industry that does not await, and winter that does not beckon the comfortably thick presence of gentle tourists. And for this choice you will be the only wine tasting guest if you roam this quiet understated wine region. This is Alsace in winter, and it is pure delight to me.

Mud will suck upon your boots should you venture off road for a photo opportunity, as Mother Earth is drenched with fog and rain, almost soaking to the bone. It is a perfect time for this, as shadows are long, and fog is a reliable, every day feature. You wonder how the fog could be so perfectly placed, hanging low and thick in between villages. Given the medieval storybook atmosphere of Alsace, it’s too perfect. Fog hangs in shadows and corners that do not draw a second thought. Vines are tied for the winter, bare and exposed without any canopy – leafless yet alive, tucked in for the winter in crisp and naked form.

We were touring the area again, now in early February. Our fourth weekend in Alsace this winter. It seems I can’t get enough of this mysterious place. By now we were more than mere semi-lost tourists. We confidently knew how to spontaneously contact wineries for impromptu tasting sessions. I’ve learned by now that winery visits can be arranged on the fly with merely a day’s notice. We would scan for wineries by style and location, bouncing from village to village, taking a detour here and there to explore a quiet country road, a village street, or visit a classic winstub for a hearty lunch. We could kiss among the vines and capture the foggy blue hills. The landscape is muted and sponged of color – only shadows between roads and hills remains, and a gray that emits the end of life for a few months. But what it really emits is a new way to consider Alsace – the off season.

Most wineries are open for tasting with a little bit of notice. Most shops are open. Though some important activities are curtailed – winery and vineyard tours, pairing dinners and other events that wineries offer to welcome many tourists. The upside is a region that is understated, not blown wide open yet. Tourists are mostly French, German, perhaps Belgian. Even the Chinese are discovering Alsace. if your French is lacking, the language barrier can be an issue. Tasting room staff may not speak enough English to allow a free flow of ideas. Their dialog may be limited to rehearsed phrases, general outlines about when and how they pick grapes, the style of the wine, with what to pair. So take your intimate tasting experience for what it is and relax. And truly study the wine, try to understand it. Some winemakers will speak excellent English and you will learn much.

Should you plan or spontaneously embark on a tasting weekend in Alsace, take care on one topic. The language barrier can be an issue in Alsace. Winery staff may not speak English well, or at all. Proper etiquette is always to call ahead and give a day’s notice to request a visit. I was lucky in that my girlfriend was a local, so quick phone calls in her native French were no problem at all.  If your French is not quite good enough to handle telephone calls, I would recommend email in English instead. For email, do give further advance notice, at least a few days if not a week or more to see the arrangement through. But always remember, Alsatian wineries are always accommodating and happy to welcome you in the off season.

As an outsider newbie on my first visit to Alsace in 2014, I planned my tasting appointments months ahead of time by email, keeping everything professional and scheduled accordingly. I realized now after several more spontaneous visits that this was entirely unnecessary for a basic tasting visit. All notable wineries have websites now with helpful details of tasting room hours by day and season.

At this time of year there simply are no tourists. And this is your primary advantage! What does this mean? Every tasting visit is virtually a personalized one-on-one experience. This may mean being led by the wife of the winemaker or other knowledgeable insider. The downside is that indeed some activities will be curtailed in the winter months. Many wineries of cellar and vineyard tours, pairing dinners, and other informative and integrated activities – these are necessarily scaled back during the slower season. I do enjoy these extra activities immensely, so I acknowledge that the purpose of my visits during the winter is strictly to focus on wine tasting and research. The advantage is that because of the lack of tourists, you’ll get the fill attention of your host.

In winter you are enjoying Alsace as it is to locals – free of traffic and other tourist congestions. And as always, the residents of Alsace are graciously welcoming, friendly and happy to accommodate.

Alsace overall does not see the dazed mobs of tourists you might encounter in other more popular destinations. Colmar though, as the dense, capital hub of Alsace, can become pretty saturated in the summer and especially during the Christmas markets.

We stop for an impromptu photo shoot on a road just next to Rorschwihr, and facing north with Saint-Hippolyte just over the hills, capturing and drab, soaked, fog enshrouded surroundings. The landscape wants you to believe in the fable of Alsace. It wants you to know there is a thousand years and more of local history. That generation after generation has been farming these hills for centuries. That legendary terroirs like Kaefferkopf, Pfersigberg, Hengst, and Schlossberg as well as 47 others have been humbly recognized for a thousand years as notable, bountiful earth.