Mysteries of Gewurztraminer

C

Christian Miller (CMM)

Christian Miller
I went to a blind Gewurztraminer tasting last week that was quite interesting, even perplexing. The wines were more diverse than I expected; Gewurz tends to impose its rather loud varietal personality on a wine and I didn't think there were big differences in most vintners' approach to the grape.

The main mystery was posed by the Trimbach wines. We were told at the start that there were two identical Trimbach wines among the selection (the standard cuvée). No one identified both of them, nor that wine B and wine F tasted like the same wine; because they didn't! I should note this was a group of experienced tasters, including some winemakers. However, the wines came from different stores and who knows what differences in storage there had been, since they were from 2017.

To my own taste, neither of the 2017 Trimbach wines had the classic bone dry, lean Trimbach house style, so I dismissed them and headed off down the wrong path of suspecting the Clare Valley and Alto Adige wines as being Trimbach.

A secondary mystery for me was what smelled like barriques on the Weinbach wine. Do they use small French oak barrels (never heard that) or was it some other molecules playing a trick on my nose?

Anyway, for people with time to waste, here are the TNs.

Handley Anderson Valley 2023 - aromatic floral-lichee/grapefruit; good acid, fesh, short, dry finish. ***

Husch Anderson Valley 2022 - herbal pyrazine on subtle grapefruit in aroma; quite dry, mild flavor, balanced, pleasant bitter hint in finish. ***

Weinbach Alsace Furstentum 2022 - med gold, more color than the others. Seems like a toasty vanilla oak note in the nose?! Woodsy, lichee fruit; ripe, broad and slightly sweet on palate, ripe fruit, decent acidity, kabinett sweetness with auslese body; med length, mild pithy bitterness. Biodynamic. ***/****

Trimbach Alsace 2017 - slightly musty, ripe apricot-floral fruit; med body, ripe almost sweet fruit balanced with a pithy bitter note; med length, a bit soft but some varietal character in finish. ***+

Trimbach Alsace 2017 - lighter color; aromatic with a smoky/pepper note on lichee-like fruit; soft and low acid, vague watery middle, off-dry; a touch of bitterness in med length finish. **

Unico Zello Clare Valley "Pollen" 2023 - very fruity fresh lime and exotic melon, rose in the aroma; dry, lean and minerally on palate with more subdued flavor; med short. I thought this was one of the Trimbachs, but the flavor makes sense based on my experience with Clare Valley Rieslings. ***

Pierre Sparr Alsace Reserve 2020 - classic varietal lichee-floral aroma; slightly sweet, fresh grapefruit, med-light body; med length, lowish acid plus RS makes it slightly cloying. ***

Hyland Willamette Valley Estate Old Vine 2023 - pale color; fruity, riesling-like appley fruit with a hint of floral honey; ripe, succulent grapefruit and rose flavor; good balance, med length with a hint of RS. ****

Adler Alto Adige 2021 - very pale; aromatic with pyrazines plus floral musk melon; dry, mineral/stony austere fruit, med light body, med length but somewhat lean and austere finish. Nice wine, but not sure I'd identify it as Gewurz. ***+

Fetzer California NV - sweet applesauce/melon fruit in nose; ripe, fairly lush fruit, med-full body, barely adequate acidity, med length. Pleasant but slightly cloying. An interesting wine from an ITB viewpoint: first, going to non-vintage. Maybe they did this because it's not that easy to purchase Gewurz grapes in high volume in California. Second, it's a significant change in style for this popular wine, which used to be much tangier and lighter. **
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
Trimbach Alsace 201 - lighter color; aromatic with a smoky/pepper note on lichee-like fruit; soft and low acid, vague watery middle, off-dry; a touch of bitterness in med length finish. **
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Having read the accompanying notes, I know this should be 2017 but checking anyway.

Thanks for the notes, Christian. I haven't reported on a gewurztraminer in more than a decade.
 
Yes, 2017, thanks and fixed. We never include wines from the classical era in blind tastings - too hard to fit amphorae into brown bags.

This tasting group long predates my membership, but AFAIK this is the only Gewurz tasting the group has ever done. A neglected variety indeed; every time I have a good one, I think I should drink it more often. But my understanding is that it has a narrow picking window and it's tricky to get the balance right in the winery. In any case, few stores offer more than a handful of them and acreage on the west coast has been in a long term decline. For myself, I plan to buy some of the Hyland.
 
Very interesting-there is never anything to read about Alsace wines, let alone their peers in other places.
I love Alsace wines but somehow I've hardly ever enjoyed Trimbach.
 
originally posted by Tom Blach:
Very interesting-there is never anything to read about Alsace wines, let alone their peers in other places.
I love Alsace wines but somehow I've hardly ever enjoyed Trimbach.
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stick to their rieslings.
 
originally posted by Tom Blach:
Very interesting-there is never anything to read about Alsace wines, let alone their peers in other places.
I love Alsace wines but somehow I've hardly ever enjoyed Trimbach.
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Same
 
I love gewurztraminer and should drink it more often. I think it suffers from the prejudice of being too delicious to be taken seriously.
 
When I'm in Alsace every few years, I use to pick up a few bottles of Emile Beyers Gewurztraminers. Their Pechstein 2022 has been delicious recently.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
originally posted by Tom Blach:
Very interesting-there is never anything to read about Alsace wines, let alone their peers in other places.
I love Alsace wines but somehow I've hardly ever enjoyed Trimbach.
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stick to their rieslings.
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Except for CSH I don't really like them either. And that now costs $300 at release where I am.

The big problem with gewürztraminer is global warming. The dry ones from Alsace frequently have 14.5% ABV, and those with enough RS to lower the ABV to 12.5% are too sweet.

I remember light (11.5 or 12%) dry gewürzs were sometimes served as an aperitif in France when people arrived before dinner but that was a long time ago.
 
originally posted by mark e:


The big problem with gewürztraminer is global warming. The dry ones from Alsace frequently have 14.5% ABV, and those with enough RS to lower the ABV to 12.5% are too sweet.
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Another big problem was widespread planting several decades back in terroirs that were not appropriate for Gewurztraminer. Those vines are largely being/have been replanted now to other grape types.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I love gewurztraminer and should drink it more often. I think it suffers from the prejudice of being too delicious to be taken seriously.
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This prejudice impacts mead in precisely the same way.

Probably not too ironically, the tasting of a broad cross section of Gewürztraminer and Riesling were key to the conceptualization of the structure/balance we try to create with our meads. Along with Sauternes.
 
originally posted by Ken Schramm:
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I love gewurztraminer and should drink it more often. I think it suffers from the prejudice of being too delicious to be taken seriously.
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This prejudice impacts mead in precisely the same way.

Probably not too ironically, the tasting of a broad cross section of Gewürztraminer and Riesling were key to the conceptualization of the structure/balance we try to create with our meads. Along with Sauternes.
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To me it suffers from the problem that I never want to drink more than a glass (or more often half a glass) of it. And neither do pretty much all of my friends. Even when we have a wheel of perfect Munster with it, the bottles rarely are empty at the end of the night.
I still regularly buy Rebholz Albersweiler Latt, which to me is one of the most precise expressions of the grape. But they accumulate in the cellar. So if any of the GT aficionados come to Boston, I happily open a few.
 
originally posted by georg lauer:

To me it suffers from the problem that I never want to drink more than a glass (or more often half a glass) of it.
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yup.

jp rietsch comes to mind as someone whose gewürztraminer i actually manage to drink with pleasure, with cheese being the right match for me too. it's a bit more robust than the likely extinct aperitif style mark evoked earlier, but it is fully dry, and in most vintages not too corpulent (~13% iirc).

fb.
 
originally posted by Robert Dentice:

I really love Gewürztraminer. Even I can't imagine an entire tasting devoted to it.
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There was more diversity than I expected. But yes, it's a bit like listening to the entire Santana Lotus album in one sitting.
 
If I am lucky enough to have a plate of Foie Gras in front of me, there's nothing I'd rather have than a lightly sweet Gewurtztraminer with it. A Weinbach non-VT/SGN is pretty much perfect. I'd much prefer that to a Sauternes.

Or a Trimbach Cuvee de signeurs de Ribeaupierre with a Tarte Flambee with Munster, actually the Trader Joes Tartes aren't terrible but the cheese is a necessary add-on.

But to be fair, unless I'm in heaven/Alsace, I don't eat that way very often. So I also don't drink gewurtz as much as I would if I was there.

Side note - those who are down on Trimbach should try their new vineyard-designated Rieslings. Good stuff and not as spendy as CSH.
 
originally posted by mlawton:
If I am lucky enough to have a plate of Foie Gras in front of me, there's nothing I'd rather have than a lightly sweet Gewurtztraminer with it. A Weinbach non-VT/SGN is pretty much perfect. I'd much prefer that to a Sauternes.
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Yeah, but. No, but. I found a Weinbach that fits that description. Has 14% RS. Problem is it also has 14% alcohol. That is what I was talking about before.

I think the aperitif style of yore could now be subbed out with a light, dry Austrian Muscat.
 
This past Saturday I tasted a bottle of Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer Hors Choix that was totally amazing: hardly any lychee, hardly any sweetness left, drank like an ethereal kabinett riesling.

I thought about this thread while I sipped it. Timing is everything.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
This past Saturday I tasted a bottle of Trimbach 2004 Gewurztraminer Hors Choix that was totally amazing: hardly any lychee, hardly any sweetness left, drank like an ethereal kabinett riesling.

I thought about this thread while I sipped it. Timing is everything.
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That wine was quite good. A real stand out amongst a lot of compromised other bottles.
 
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