I have no idea what this is, bought it the other day thinking it was some kind of Riesling but it’s the weirdest wine I’ve ever tasted, got a real floral taste with lots of citrus notes.
3 Likes
The grape is Gewürztraminer, you’ve described it well. It tends to be very floral, common in the Alsace where your example is from. There are some new world ones as well, the ones I’ve tried have been alcohol heavy.
1 Like
Gewürztraminer is a good match for oriental food. We very often choose it when cooking Chinese.
Didn’t go well with sea food. Huge surprise when open it smelt like a sticky but it tastes much drier, weird though. Not sure if I like it, it was a byo restaurant I had to race down the street to get something I could drink.
Gewurztraminer (umlaut on the ü in German speaking countries) is a pink skinned highly aromatic (has the same terpenes that flavour lychee/litchi) grape variety. Its ripening accelerates towards harvest, meaning that it is often (usually, even) low in acidity and high in sugar. Trying to have all the sugar to ferment to alcohol will often result in high-alcohol wines, or some remaining sweetness (or both) and frequently nature will not play ball and the fermentation stops with residual sugar in the wine anyway.
The name means Spicy (wurz) from Tramin (ge-, -er). Tramin is now, in fact, in Italy, but was part of the German Speaking Austro-Hungarian empire (the majority of the people in the Alto-Adige/Südtirol are still German speakers). Somehow it ended up in Alsace having left a trail behind in Austria and Germany, it still grows in both, but not so widely. There’s a lot of it still in and around Tramin (they call it Traminer), and here produces its freshest lightest examples (quite high up and cool).
To me it smells of perfume. To others lychee, rose petal, ginger (spice). It can age (unusual for soft-acid wines) and gets honey and toast flavours in consequence.
It occasionally (and with great difficulty) makes dessert-level sweet wines. « Vendange Tardive » (VT) (late harvest) or « Sélection des Grains Nobles » (SGN) (with botrytis).
Personally, I dislike it intensely. But others really love it. Never buy a cheap one though. they smell like toilet-soap.
Here’s some growing happily:
6 Likes
For a bonus 10 points, the variety also grows somewhere else in France, and makes a noted (although rare) wine style that is almost completely different from its Alsacien cousins, in every way, including what they call it.
In fact it is only relatively recent DNA profiling that proved they were one and same, to many people’s surprise (mine included).
Where, and what is it called?
Rod I’d have to agree with you, it took me by complete surprise. This ones only 8% alcohol but it just tastes wrong, I paid good money for it too. Not very nice at all, was going to try it again tomorrow with some strong cheeses.
Is that vin paille from the Jura? I seem to remember some connection to Gewurz.
Strong cheese is your friend. Munster, Livarot, Tête de Moine, Époisses.
All stinky enough to take away the flavour of Gewurztraminer…
2 Likes
I like Gewürztraminer, but only from Alsace, and only when its been done well. As Rod says, it can easily tip over to a kind of sweet soapy floral smell and taste. However, when it’s good, it can be quite sublime and I also like it with just a little bit of extra bottle age. My girlfriend doesn’t really drink alcohol, but she’ll take a glass of decent Gewürztraminer, so it’s one of the few wines we can share. It’s a great partner to Thai or Malaysian food.
Sorry Rod, I can’t claim any bonus 10. Could it be Viognier? Maybe the lovely Ch. Grillet?
2 Likes
That’s five of the points, certainly. But not quite…
Well done.
Oddly enough Gewurz was part of my entry to “fine” wine, it had a lot more flavour than generic “dry white”. I think that with heavy chilling it covered some of the problems, I now find I can enjoy one glass in a bar, but after that it cloys the palate.
1 Like
Vin Jaune I guess as it must be Jura.
1 Like
Well there’s a dame fine bottle in the fridge here if your interested.
I have friends who swear by a glass of Gewürztraminer with foie gras - I’ve not had a good example for years, but like Richard I like it with some bottle age, and Similar to Eoink it was my preferred white and drank it before I stumbled up Alsace Riesling.
I feel I have been overly dismissive. One of the great tastings of my life was with the definition-of-charm that was the great Etienne Hugel in Riquewihr. Etienne died a few years ago at the preposterously young age of 57 (frankly most people were surprised he was out of his forties, he was so vivacious). In the hands of great winemakers (Catherine Faller at Weinbach and Olivier Humbrect also), Gewurztraminer can be sublime, although it is never less than intense. And I tasted many of the exceptions that (to me) still prove a rule. But then, I once had a delicious ‘tête de veau’. Once.
But it needs the personal touch. The harvest does not only need to be on the right day, it needs to be at the right time of day (usually 3am, which costs in every way). In fact Alsace was the first place in France to harvest on Sundays, because such heresy was sanctioned by the church. Even god, it seems, was aware of the foibles of her creation.
So, it can be good. But it usually isn’t. And it is when mechanisation, or price points, dictate what happens, that it goes wrong.
1 Like
Vin Jaune it is. Congratulations. Made from Savagnin (aka Traminer).
Bone dry, high acid (picked early) aged under flor (like Sherry). Could not be more different.
Vin Jaune is delicious!!
1 Like
Funnily enough from your posts on sherry I suspected you were a Vin Jaune fan. I copped out of the grape name because I always spell it wrongly, I usually either have the au or the o from Sauvignon in it.
1 Like
Me too.
Update on the Bethany Old Vines Grenache: it’s great with a fish curry, boiled rice and a raita. I reckon it’s the alcohol and the lack of tannin.
3 Likes