{"id":10047,"date":"2026-10-31T11:07:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T10:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/2026\/10\/31\/in-alsace-with-the-confrerie-de-saint-etienne-the-ficb-wine-discovery-tour\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:46:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T17:46:42","slug":"in-alsace-with-the-confrerie-de-saint-etienne-the-ficb-wine-discovery-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/2026\/10\/31\/in-alsace-with-the-confrerie-de-saint-etienne-the-ficb-wine-discovery-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"In Alsace with the Confr\u00e9rie de Saint-Etienne: the FICB wine discovery tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Some thirty members of brotherhoods affiliated to the FICB, from France, Portugal, Romania, Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States, responded to Jacques Cattin, Grand Master of the Brotherhood of Saint-\u00c9tienne d\u2019Alsace’s call, and gathered in Colmar from 16 to 19 October.<\/p>

The programme on offer gave us the chance to savour regional specialities: Baeckeoffe<\/em>, tarte flamb\u00e9e (Flammekueche<\/em>), sauerkraut, M\u00fcnster cheese and Zvatchkawaya (plum tart), accompanied by the seven Alsatian wine varieties: Riesling, Sylvaner, Gew\u00fcrztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Muscat, served in traditional venues such as the Bartholdi restaurant in Colmar.<\/p>

\"restaubartholdi\"<\/figure>

They visited two of the most beautiful villages in France: Eguisheim, where they were welcomed by Armand Baur of the Charles Baur vineyards, who treated them to a tasting of his2019 Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Pfersigberg<\/strong> and gave them a tour of his cellars;<\/p>

\"gewurzbaur\"<\/figure>

and in Riquewihr, where Margaux Jung, from the Jung Gustave et Fils vineyards, welcomed them with her Riesling and just as much warmth.<\/p>

\"margaux\"

Margaux<\/figcaption><\/p>

One of the highlights of this trip was the solemn chapter<\/p><\/figure>

\"feuilletchapitre\"<\/figure>

with the induction ceremony at Kientzheim Castle, which dates from the 16th century and is owned by the Brotherhood.<\/p>

\"the<\/figure>

A large delegation from the Brotherhood\u2019s Dutch branch in the Netherlands was present. Around ten participants from the FICB group were welcomed as \u2018Apprentices\u2019 \u2013 for first-time members \u2013 or as \u2018Companions\u2019 or \u2018Oenophiles\u2019.<\/p>

\"apprentis\"<\/figure>
\"intronises\"<\/figure>
\"pedrohubgord\"<\/figure>
\"Tal<\/figure>

Honorary President Claude Josse and Marc Lesk, the current president of the FICB, were awarded the title of \u2018Knights of Honour\u2019.<\/p>

\"singeins1\"<\/figure>

The meal served on this occasion was the creation of Eric Girardin, the Michelin-starred chef at the \u2018Maison des T\u00eates\u2019 restaurant. Each dish was paired with a suitable wine; noteworthy examples included the 2024 Gewurztraminer from the Jacques Cattin estate, which accompanied the unmissable \u2018gonfl\u00e9\u2019 M\u00fcnster cheese served with grapes and cumin, and the 2017 Pinot Gris \u2018S\u00e9lection de Grains Nobles\u2019, served with dessert.<\/p>

\"menu\"<\/figure>

The final day took place at the Cattin estate in Voegtlinshoffen. We went to St Nicholas\u2019 Church,<\/p>

\"dansleglise\"<\/figure>

before meeting up at the Cattin estate<\/p>

\"bienvenue\"<\/figure>

where some ten winegrowers from the Alsatian wine brotherhoods (each representing a specific Alsatian terroir) were expecting us to come and taste their wines.<\/p>

\"degustationcattin\"<\/figure>

We thus discovered, having turned out in large numbers, the Blessed of Frankstein, the Brotherhood of the Horn of Ottrott, the Marlenheim and Couronne d’Or Oenophile Order, the Cleebourg Wine Brotherhood, the Rieslinger Brotherhood, the Friends of Ammerschwihr and Kaepferkopf, the Brotherhood of Saint Urbain (and also the Brotherhood of the Wine Queens, elected each year along with their vice-queens)<\/p>

  • \"bannieres\"

    <\/p>

    bannieres<\/figcaption>
    <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"cleebourg\"

    <\/p>

    cleebourg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"frankstein\"

    <\/p>

    frankstein<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"Hkonigsbourg\"

    <\/p>

    Hkonigsbourg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"kaefferkopf\"

    <\/p>

    kaefferkopf<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"ottrott\"

    <\/p>

    ottrott<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"reinesduvin\"

    <\/p>

    reinesduvin<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>
    <\/div><\/div><\/div>

    The evening, which featured, amongst other things, sauerkraut and Zwatchkawaya (plum tart) \u2013 two iconic Alsatian dishes \u2013 naturally accompanied by the finest wines, was as festive as could be, with entertainment provided by the accordionist and comedian Pascal Lacom and his fellow performers.<\/p>

    \"musiciens\"

    musiciens<\/figcaption><\/p>

    On this occasion, President Marc presented the FICB medal to Grand Master Jacques Cattin.And so it was amidst laughter and song that this fifth wine-tasting tour, sponsored by the FICB, drew to a close, during which we raised this toast time and again:<\/p>

    Sing eins, Trink eins, tralalalalalala! (\u201cSing once, drink once\u201d)<\/p>

    <\/p><\/figure>

    We would like to thank our brothers and sisters from the Confr\u00e9rie de Saint-Etienne, and Grand Master Jacques Cattin, for organising this wonderful tour and making all these lovely encounters possible.<\/p>

    The regional newspaper *Les Derni\u00e8res Nouvelles d\u2019Alsace* reported on our visit.<\/p>

    \"articlejournal2710\"

    articlejournal2710<\/figcaption><\/p><\/figure>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Some thirty members of brotherhoods affiliated to the FICB, from France, Portugal, Romania, Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States, responded to Jacques Cattin, Grand Master of the Brotherhood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,47,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brotherhoods","category-discovery-tour","category-prime"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bachiquesetviniques-1.jpg","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10047"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10050,"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10047\/revisions\/10050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winebrotherhoods.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}