The Alsace Wine Year: Harvest, Christmas and the Quiet Months

The Alsace Wine Route changes more with the season than any timetable shows. The vines go from bare wood to green to gold, the open-top bus runs half the year, and December belongs to the Christmas markets. This guide takes the wine year season by season, so you can time your Alsace Wine booking.

What does the wine year look like from the road?

Four seasons, each with its own vineyard. In winter the rows are bare and the pruners are out. In spring the buds break and the slope turns green. In summer the grapes set and swell. In autumn they are picked, and the leaves turn gold and rust.

The weather follows the same curve. Colmar-Meyenheim, the Météo-France station on the plain, records 22°C as the mean high in September and 6°C in December. Our weather page has every month.

Harvest: when, and what changes?

The harvest falls in the autumn, on dates each year's grapes decide. No official body has published a 2026 start date, so we do not print one. September and October are the months to watch.

What changes is the lanes. Tractors pull trailers of grapes, pickers work the rows, and the growers are busy. A tasting still runs, but a cellar tour may be shorter. If you want to see picking, book a day that walks the vines rather than one that drives past them.

The vineyard walk near Colmar is the closest you can get. You spend an hour in the rows of a working estate, an hour in its cellar and vat room, and an hour at the table. In harvest weeks that cellar is where the new wine is being made. Book a weekday: a grower is more likely to stop and talk.

What is spring like in the vineyard?

Green, and quieter than summer. Budburst comes in April, and the open-top bus starts on Friday 3 April 2026, running at weekends and on public holidays. May is the wettest month on the plain, with 70 mm of rain at Colmar, so take a waterproof.

June brings long evenings and flowering. It is the month to walk a village after the day visitors leave.

How hot is summer on the route?

Warm to hot. July's mean high at Colmar is 26.7°C, and the station records about 7 days a month above 30°C. There is no shade between the rows.

So ask for a morning or an afternoon half day, carry water, and keep the cellar for the heat of the day. The bus runs from market day to Sunday in July and August.

When are the colours best?

In October, when the leaves turn gold and rust on the slope. September is warmer, with a mean high of 22°C, and October wetter, with 57 mm of rain against September's 51. Harvest weekends fill the villages, so book a weekday if you can.

Autumn is also festival time in the villages. Obernai's tourist office lists its 51st Sauerkraut Festival, the Sürkrütfecht, on 26 September and 3 October 2026. Obernai sits on the northern stretch of the route, and the half days from Strasbourg pass close by.

The open-top bus runs its last day on Sunday 11 October 2026. After that, the villages around Colmar need a car or a tour.

The Christmas weeks, village by village

The markets open from late November, and each village keeps its own dates. The Colmar tourist office has published 2026 dates for its villages:

Strasbourg has not yet published its 2026 dates. During the markets, both Ophorus days out of Strasbourg return just outside the Grande-Île, with the address set by the guide, and the castle day from Strasbourg does not run at weekends from 16 November to 25 December. Our page on when to visit keeps the full list.

What closes on 25 December and 1 January?

Most of what you came for. Neither Ophorus Wine Route day runs on 25 December or 1 January. The castle closes on 25 and 26 December and on 1 January, and the Musée Unterlinden on 1 January and 25 December.

So plan a Christmas trip around the days either side. The markets themselves run on into late December in several villages.

What is left from January to March?

The wine, and the quiet. The van days and the walks publish no winter closure, and the castle keeps shorter hours with a midday break. February is the driest month at Colmar, 31 mm, and January the frostiest.

Entry to Haut-Kœnigsbourg is free on the first Sunday of each month from November to March. It is the cheapest time of year to see it.

The open-top bus season, exactly

• Starts: Friday 3 April 2026.
• April, May, June and October: Friday to Sunday and public holidays.
• July, August and September: from market day to Sunday, and public holidays.
• Ends: Sunday 11 October 2026.
• Outside the season: private hire only.

What is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays?

The castle opens at 10:30am on Mondays, an hour later than the rest of the week. The Musée Unterlinden in Colmar closes every Tuesday. Neither stops a wine day, but a self-guided Tuesday in Colmar should skip the museum.

Which tour suits which season?

• Winter: stay indoors for the wine. The ninety-minute private tasting in Strasbourg runs Thursday to Saturday, and the estate lunch at Gertwiller seats you at a table with a wine beside each course.
• Spring: walk. The vineyard walk near Colmar puts you among the new leaves, and the Riquewihr walk has the lanes before the summer crowds.
• Summer: go early or late. The Ophorus half day from Strasbourg runs in the morning or the afternoon, and the Colmar half day leaves at 1:45pm, after the hottest walking hours in the villages.
• Autumn: take a full day. The villages are gold, the harvest is on, and the Ophorus full day pours at three growers while they work.
• December: check the weekday. The castle day from Strasbourg stops running at weekends from 16 November to 25 December, and the Ophorus days change their return point for the markets.

Whatever the season, the tasting is the constant. The cellar is the same temperature in January as in July.

What should you pack in each season?

• Winter: a warm coat, gloves and boots with grip. Colmar records frost on 17 nights in an average January, and a Christmas market is mostly standing still.
• Spring: layers and a waterproof. May brings the thundery showers, and an open-top bus is cold before 10:00am.
• Summer: a hat, sun cream and water. July averages 251 hours of sun at Colmar.
• Autumn: shoes you do not mind muddying. October is wetter than September, and vineyard paths hold the rain.

In every season, carry a light jumper into the cellar. Wine is kept cool all year, and you will stand still for an hour.

Which month suits a first visit?

September, if you can choose. The weather is still warm, the harvest is under way, the bus is running. June is the green alternative, and December the festive one.

Whichever you choose, book early for weekends, and read our day on the route, hour by hour to plan the day itself.

Frequently asked questions

Tours that fit the season

Alsace: Half-Day Wine Tour from Colmar

An afternoon from Colmar: Hunawihr, an hour in Riquewihr and up to ninety minutes underground, with six wines poured for you before you come back.

From $113 per person

Check Availability

From Colmar: Castle, Alsace Villages & Wine Tasting

A long day from Colmar with the castle ticket in the fare, three villages, the Sigolsheim necropolis and an hour at a winery. A French-speaking driver, with audio in twelve languages.

From $160 per person

Check Availability

Medieval Villages and Wine Tasting from Strasbourg

A long day by minibus from the Place de l'Étoile coach station, with real time on the ground in Ribeauvillé, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Eguisheim, and a tasting in the fare.

From $146 per person

Check Availability