Just under 100 kilometres down the Rhine, Alsace winds its way from Colmar almost to Strasbourg and is merely four kilometres wide at its widest point. The vineyards in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains cover approximately 15,000 hectares, with the almost 1,000-metre-high mountains also protecting the wildly romantic wine growing landscape from rain. The climate in Alsace is therefore very low in rainfall, with warm summers and mild winters; Colmar is even one of the cities with the least rainfall in Europe, along with Perpignan in southern France. Since the Rhine Graben was tectonically very active over many millennia, a wide variety of rock formations have risen to the top, sometimes in a very confined space. Alsace therefore also offers an enormous variety of terroir, which in turn is matched by the diversity of grape varieties. As a result, a distinctive feature of Alsace is also the indication of grape variety on the label, the great exception for wines of controlled provenance (AOP) in France. Alsace produces primarily a variety of white wines: from the noble varieties Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat as well as from rather simpler varieties such as Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois or Sylvaner (spelled here with a "y"). White wines from the top varieties can be among the best in the world. The simple varieties are also used to make the "Edelzwicker" cuvée, a plain dry white wine. The only red grape variety permitted is Pinot Noir, which is generally used to make simple, easy-drinking rosé wines rather than high-quality red wines, although there are isolated cases of this. Winemaking is still very traditional, but the dry climate is increasingly leading farms to convert to organic or biodynamic viticulture. A speciality of Alsace is the sparkling wine, Crémant d'Alsace, produced from Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and also Chardonnay.
