Is there any region other than Alsace, the birthplace of the winstub, with a traditional restaurant whose name refers specifically to wine consumption? The traffic jams of Lyon? In fact, these Beaujolais temples owe their name not to the uncorked cork, but to the small bundle of branches (bousche, in old French) that innkeepers hung over their doors.
The Alsatian etymology clearly announces the color: gain half came AND bead, the room in which it is consumed. With its worn woodwork and marquetry, its atmospheres filtered through windows in the background, its Kelsch checkered tablecloths, its illustrated crockery and its Hansi lithographs, the winstubs should represent “the welcoming soul of Alsace”, the quintessence of the art of drinking well, eating well and conviviality.
An ideal of “authenticity” that is sometimes distorted, admittedly, by mass tourism, which pushes to standardize the picturesque to the point of caricature. However, there are still, from the Upper to the Lower Rhine, houses that, without giving up traditions, renew the gastronomic and wine offering.
Artisans, bourgeois or nobles
Winstubs are heirs to an ancient sociability. Dating back to the Middle Ages, the “corporatist stoves”, these large rooms – heated by a stove (tube) – which hosted meetings of artisans, bourgeois or nobles, but were also places of relaxation and restoration. Numerous taverns in Strasbourg, during the Ancien Régime and after the Revolution, later became a symbol of identity. After the French defeat in 1871, Alsace was incorporated into the Reich. The Germans opened large breweries, bierstubs, where beer was consumed. The Alsatians are said to have reacted by creating more intimate places, the winstubs, dedicated to the consumption of wine.
Winegrowers and traders benefit from this. “act of resistance” In order to sell Riesling, Sylvaner, Gewurztraminer, Pinot or Edelzwicker by the jug, some do not hesitate to invest in these establishments. Customers first accompany their wine with aperitifs, which they sometimes bring themselves, before expanding the offer to include specialities that have remained indelible: presskopf (head cheese), cervello salad, onion tart, salted veal, calf’s head, sauerkraut, liver dumplings, Riesling chicken, kidneys with mustard sauce, ham…
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