Riquewihr is certainly the object of an enchantment which lasts for centuries.

Its layout
and structure have not changed since the Middle Age.
Look at these old houses built in the XVI ème and XVIIéme siècles, their courtyards, their
galleries, the old wells, the fountains.
Every piece of architecture is miraculously preserved. If today's Riquewihr resembles so
much the Middle Age town it is because the people have not changed much either. For
they have the same lifestyle and their existence revolves around the industry of wine
making.
It is the aroma of this particular wine that you smell in every "Winstub" of the main street.
Wine is everywhere and everything in Riquewihr and maybe the cause of the enchantment.

Filled to the brim and overflowing with tourists. Riquewihr was once called
Winzerdorf (wine village) and served as a trading hub for Alsatian and German
wine ( Riesling and other great wines produced here). It looks exactly as it did
in the 16th Century. Riquewihr is a fabulous little medieval city situated
between mountains and vineyards, but only 7 miles from Colmar and minutes
from other famous Alsatian villages like Ribeauville, Hunawihr, Eguisheim and
Kaysersberg.
Riquewihr is also classified among the "Most Beautiful Villages in France"
because of the half-timbered houses dating back to the 15-18th centuries and
the amazing Dolder Gate. By now, ex-Marine and I were trying very hard not to
become blase with dates of 1100, 1291, 13th century, etc. In Chicago, anything
older than 100 years is destroyed and as a result, all these medieval villages
were nothing short of miraculous to us.

Dolder Gate

Riquewihr house from 1578

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Walking down the main street at a snail's pace, there were shops selling
macaroons(puszedli) (the main cookie/biscuit here) and salespeople handing out
samples. (We tasted a delicious, rich fudgy macaroon.) Many patisseries with a
huge variety of scrumptious looking fruit tarts. Restaurants everywhere. How
does a small town of less than 1,500 people manage to support so many
restaurants?
The Thieves' Tower (13-15th century) was used as a prison and had a torture
chamber(kínzókamra) in it along with a Guard room. (The Guard room had a
collection of torture instruments.) The Vine Grower's House (16th century) had
an old kitchen, furniture and cellar. This was on the Rue des Juifs (street of
Jews), otherwise known as a Jewish ghetto. Once again, the Jewish people had
a big presence all along this route and almost every little town had a Rue des
Juifs (or Judengasse) where the Jews were forced to live in little enclaves,
Ghettos.
The Maison Kiener, built in 1574, had a very unusual pediment(oromzat)
depicting death getting hold of the founder of the house in a "danse
macabre(haláltánc)."

Riquewihr danse macabre

There were alleyways and small courtyards leading off the main street, a small
museum,vividly colored houses,just too much to see

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 Chateau des Ducs de Wurtemberg archaeological museum
We slowly made our way through the basically one-street town, munching all
the free samples, looking in the windows, dodging all the other tourists snapping
furiously away with their digital cameras, until we exited Riquewihr via the
other gate with its moat...
And now there was distillery after distillery making "eau de vie" - fruit brandy,
beer and wine. It was interesting to hear that it takes more than 30 pounds/14
kilograms to make one bottle of fruit brandy.
Beer is another symbol of Alsace. There was a big micro-brewery (Holl) and most
of the breweries also make a Christmas beer, available only in December (duh),
a blend of the best malts. Strong and dense, the brewers also add special
aromatic notes such as: cinnamon, coriander, ginger, honey, etc
And one last big winery with tractors lined up, filled with loads of grapes, and
waiting their turn to be unloaded. Riquewihr is the epi-center of the wine route
and we'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to be aware without being told.