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gewürztraminer

Another Sipp

[vines]Sipp Mack 2004 Gewurztraminer “Vendanges Tardives” “Lucie Marie” (Alsace) – Lighter-styled, showing rose oil, cashew juice, and ripe peach. Moderately sweet, elegant, and smooth, this is the perfect style of VT to have (as the Alsatians do) pre-dinner, with foie gras, rather than afterwards as a decadent dessert. (3/06)

Take this wine and Schoffit

Schoffit 2004 Gewurztraminer Harth “Cuvée Caroline” (Alsace) – Quite sweet, and though there’s a dark black coal-like core of minerality, the sweetness overwhelms and overpowers this gewurztraminer, partially due to the lack of balancing acidity. The wine is full of flavor – Turkish delight, ripe peach, ginger – but, again, that flavor is subordinate to the wine’s sticky weight. Over the last ten years or so, Schoffit has shown a very disturbing but unquestionably increasing affection for this sort of product, and it has lessened the wines (though it has undoubtedly made them more popular among those who think wine’s best destiny is syrup). (12/07)

Non-EU ü

[label]Kahurangi Estate 2004 Gewürztraminer (Moutere) – 18 grams/liter residual sugar; the result of a deliberately stopped fermentation. Thick, oily peach and orange give this wine a syrupy texture, and a decided lack of acid (though a trace is noticeable at the very tail end of the finish) adds to this quality. There’s a touch of skin bitterness as well, which isn’t uncommon for gewürztraminer. Drinkable. (3/05)

Say it three times fast

[bottle]Gundlach Bundschu 2003 Gewürztraminer Rhinefarm (Sonoma Valley) – Soft but varietally true, with the fruit more in the spiced peach spectrum than the lychee/cashew realm. It drifts along pleasantly, neither demanding nor asserting, for a surprising length of time. A solid wine. (11/07)

Seigneurs moment

Trimbach 1996 Gewurztraminer “Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre” (Alsace) – Heat-damaged. A shame, as the remnants are dense and intensely-flavored. (11/07)

Wurz on paper

Trimbach 2001 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Thinning a bit, but none the worse for it, with a more linear spice route leaving bare a firm minerality underneath. Balanced and true. (11/07)

Meyer-Fonné 2005 Gewurztraminer “Réserve Particulière” (Alsace) – Fine varietal character (though of the fruitier, not spicier or, um, bacon-ier variety) with a good deal of residual sugar. There’s enough acidity – just – to lift the wine. Drinkable and good, but forgettable. (11/07)

Nobility

Gresser 1998 Gewurztraminer Andlau “Sélection des Grains Nobles” (Alsace) – Creamed cashew and rose jam dusted with white pepper, the latter of which defines the initial texture of the wine. Dense, rich and spice-laden, with flakes of steel throughout. This is a terrific, balanced wine of intensity but also – and more importantly – of style. The finish is incredibly long, as it should be. Brilliant.

Attack

Gresser 1997 Gewurztraminer Mœnchberg “Vendanges Tardives” (Alsace) – Prickly petroleum-spiked juice, with a decidedly different mélange of papaya, tamarind and quince. Perhaps some strawberry as well. I’ve never tasted anything like it. Structurally, it’s long and acidic, and this – perhaps predictably – is done more in the true late-harvest (rather than simply sweet) style that used to be the norm in Alsace, though it does carry 30 grams of residual sugar. A bracing, almost shocking version of this most ubiquitous of Alsatian late-harvest wines.

Kritt it!

Gresser 2004 Gewurztraminer Kritt (Alsace) – From graves soil. Crisp lychee and cashew oil with fresh rose petals floating about. The finish is slightly charred, with some alcohol apparent.