Browse Tag

gewürztraminer

Slim Johann

Trimbach 2001 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – A little past its best, with the almost-always-present (save 1997 and 2000) bite of the wine’s structure starting to take precedence over the strappy, lychee and peach fruit. (1/09)

Bobson

Robertson 2007 Gewürztraminer “Special Late Harvest” (Robertston) – Quite sweet, without enough balancing acidity, but the wine’s pleasant and varietally correct: peach, lychee, oil, and syrup, with a fuzzier apricot note (botrytis? yes, according to the label). Fairly short. And yet, it’s not a full-blown dessert wine by any means. Call it an aperitif gewürztraminer in the mode of the less expensive VT versions an Alsatian restaurant might serve while you’re studying the menu. Like so many of those: drinkable, pleasant, but not all that great. (1/09)

Celilo Stitch

Sineann 2007 Gewürztraminer Celilo Vineyard (Columbia Gorge) – Juicy, refreshing, and forward. Fragrant. Lemongrass and underripe guava, crisp pear, pretty good acidity. If you’re thinking that none of the preceding sounds anything like the gewürztraminer with which you’re familiar, you’re right. But if you forget what’s on the label, it’s a quite pleasant quaff. (12/08)

S’parro

Sparr 2002 Gewurztraminer (Alsace) – Dark and fairly advanced; well-spiced goop with darkly leaden shards of minerality. Goes with pretty much nothing, food-wise, but useful as a heady aperitif. Drink up, though. (12/08)

Cluster bomb

[grapes]Navarro 1997 Gewürztraminer “Late Harvest Cluster Select” (Anderson Valley) – 375 ml., 9.6%. Fully mature, and very impressive, with dark bronzed lychee met in equal measure by freshly-dug black truffle, old peach liqueur (minus the heat), and exotic nut oils. Very sweet, but nicely balanced, long, and laden with spice. (9/08)

VT day

[botrytis]Faller “Domaine Weinbach” 1994 Gewurztraminer “Vendanges Tardives” (Alsace) – Heady spiced lychee with light skin tannin. Very intense, as befits the house style, but the structure is considering abandoning this wine; while it will certainly maintain richness for many years (perhaps decades) to come, I’d consider drinking it soon for maximum balance. (6/08)

Who’s the Mann?

[vineyard]Mann 1998 Gewurztraminer Furstentum “Sélection de Grains Nobles” (Alsace) – Concentrated and intense. Peach, apricot, lychee, and cashew oil laden with Indian spice are forcefully shoved to the front, after which gorgeous sweetness braced by flawless acidity expand, fill, then cleanse. A really, really terrific gewürztraminer. It’s drinking beautifully, and while further aging will depend on the drinker’s taste for the saltier form that it will take in 15-20 years, there’s much to admire right now. (8/08)

A bundle of schu

Gundlach Bundschu 2003 Gewürztraminer Rhinefarm (Sonoma Valley) – Thick and sweet-feeling…sweet-tasting, too…with a light wisp of acrid nut that verges on armpitty, but doesn’t quite get there. This is fading rather than developing, and in another year or two it will just be watery. (7/08)

Gundlach Bundschu 2006 Gewürztraminer Rhinefarm (Sonoma Valley) – More sugary than it needs to be, with good nectarine and peach flavors, but lacking the verve of lychee or the spice prevalent in better versions. There’s some acidity, which is helpful, and the wine is quite pleasantly drinkable, but no more. (7/08)

Tardives salad

Trimbach 1997 Gewurztraminer “Vendanges Tardives” (Alsace) – Closed and tight, but despite that, there’s lychee, cashew, not-insignificant acidity (though less than in the ’98), and a biting bitterness to the finish, which is fairly typical for ultra-late harvested gewürztraminer. This is in nothing approaching a good place right now, and needs much time. (2/08)

We can only grow the way the Windsbuhl

Zind-Humbrecht 1994 Gewurztraminer Hunawihr Clos Windsbuhl (Alsace) – Big & rich (save a cashew, ride a lychee), very spicy, and somewhat sweet…but it handles it all with balance. Orange peel candy and dried peach with a touch of heat on the finish, which is shorter than I’d like; it’s the wine’s most obvious flaw. (2/08)