22 Sep 2025 | Samantha Dugan

Alsace Revisited

“How did you get into wine?”

A question I am asked several times a month, mostly from new customers or sales reps that have yet to hear the love story that is Samantha and The Wine Country.

The condensed version is when I was recruited to work here at The Wine Country I didn’t know, like or even drink wine. They all tasted the same to me, but seeing as I was hired to do shipping and work the back room in this wine shop it really didn’t matter, though Randy was determined to try and make a wine lover out of me if it was the last thing he did.

One afternoon the sound that always sent my eyes rolling and face into full on scrunch mode, “Hey Sam! Come taste this wine,” Randy’s voice bellowing from the tasting room, broad grin across his face, his arm extended with a puddle of wine splashing about in the bottom of a glass.

Being fairly shy and as I mentioned above, not into wine at all, I rather loathed these exchanges. Always afraid I was going to look dumb in front of the “wine speakers” standing there, lowering my head, nose dipping below the rim of the glass, nostrils flared as I took a deep sniff of their worshiped elixir and flatly reported my findings, “Smells like wine”

That one afternoon, that grin on Randy’s face, the glass passed off into my hand. It was that puddle of aromatic white wine that flipped my switch, spun my head and ended up putting my hesitant heels right on the path of a whole career in wine.

It was a wine from France’s relatively unsung wine growing regions, the region of Alsace that opened my curious sniffer and quite literally changed my life. I quickly moved my wine focus from Alsace to the Loire Valley, Champagne and then to my beloved Burgundy, but Alsace has always had a special place in my heart. Plus they are some of the most food-appropriate wines on the planet, so I’m forever in that department either shopping for what I’m making for dinner, or assisting a customer with a food and wine pairing.

The wines really are that flexible and though mostly white, the range of foods they pair brilliantly with is remarkable. Because of where Alsace is located, very near Germany (has in fact been Germany at different times), the foods of Alsace are rich, meat/pork heavy and loaded with lots of big luscious flavors, the fuller-bodied and explosively aromatic wines are utter perfection when paired with sausages, cheesy potatoes, briny cabbage and more.

I absolutely love turning people on to these wines, like unlocking a gate to a secret garden full of luxurious treats just waiting to be discovered.

We recently did a Saturday afternoon tasting featuring the wines of Alsace and it gave us the opportunity to sample some of our wicked cool mustard along with sauerkraut and sausages, perfect for the wines we were pouring and a great reminder that we have delicious food items as well as wine.

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Alsace Revisited

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Featured Sauerkrauts:

My Standout Wines: