I have enjoyed a few from Alto Adige a great deal. Hoftstatter and Walch, which Harry mentioned. There is at least a third, but the name escapes me. They are dry and generally crisper than those from Alsace. The aromatics are quite similar, if less exuberant, and while they show Gewurz richness, they don’t have the weight and have a somewhat less lush texture.
The Tercero Gewurz (Outlier) is very, very good.
Weimer in the Finger Lakes does a very nice job.
But Harry is right. Alsace with a little sweetness is where it’s at.
I think that Bedrock gas a very tasty one, soon to be released.
I am a complete pushover for lychee. I will second the Tercero Outlier as very good. My go to wine when I can find it is at Kermit Lynch and is the Meyer-Fonne Sporen vineyard Gewurz. Just loaded up on a case and I never order a case of anything. I am buying this case without having tasted the most recent vintage, but the producer and the vineyard are predictable. I chill my wine way down and freeze the wine glass too.
OK I started out with the Alsace producers 2012 Trimbach and 2013 Zind Humbrecht. I was surprised at the 14% and 13.5% ABV but I’m a newbee, what do I know. I much preferred the Zind @ 13.5. The Trimbach, while beautifully perfumed with lychee, reminded me a bit of my experiences with Alban Rousanne. It was too dense for my tastes. If I read correctly from my research from articles in PWV from the 90s said it has Chard and Semillion blended in. I would have thought that would make for a crisper wine with some zing. Zind was more balanced for me. I’ll be trying the CAs next. I can see the issues with lack of acid and wonder what you al think about a blend that had quite a bit more acid? Would it ruin the experience?
Evan are you saying you think the ZH and Trimbach wines are blends? I don’t think they are - Alsace regs are single variety. ZH do make one (blended) wine outside the regs, the Zind, but there’s no Gewurz in it. No blends at Trimbach as far as I know.
Phil,
I’ll look back at the varietal focus from 90s PWV and report back. I remember thinking that we could do more structural Chard blended in to get the acidity. That is why I commented that way on my first post.
Yep, my bad. I don’t see it now. Makes sense as France has so many regulations. Now I’m am going to go crazy trying to figure out where I came up with that information…
No schilling here, but you should try my 2014 The Outlier . . .
I will Larry. Bottle Barn by chance?
Count me as a fan as well. Hard to find good CA ones, but one that I had very good experience with and was not mentioned yet is the '12 Corison Gewurtz. It is labeled as Corazón
Having grown up in a German community, I enjoy Gewurzt but don’t drink a lot of it. Domestically, I have not looked beyond producers in California. I like Stony Hill’s and Tercero’s efforts. Williams Selyem offers a late harvest Gewurtz which serves nicely as an after dinner dessert wine.
from our vineyard in Anderson Valley.
I love Gewurztraminer but I laugh at how Pinot Noir is called “the hearbreak grape” because to me Gewurz is the one that go sideways so fast, at least in terms of the final wine. Just a nudge over in sugar or a nudge less in acidity and it becomes too flabby. Not enough sugar or too much acidity and it becomes a bitter mess.
I have had Gewurz from Ontario and other regions that is far too young and pretty much as flavorless as Pinot Grigio. I have had old vines Gewurz that tastes like the syup from canned lychees.
But when the stuff comes out right… boy does it ever. Sweetness, crispness, ginger spice, lychee fruit flavor, petal aromatics. Interestingly, it also makes a fantastic icewine and Alsacian VT and SGN so at some point all of what I wrote above stops applying and then becomes its strongest point again!
It is also way more versatile than even a lover like me thought it was. Jay Hack brought a bottle of the Scholium Project 10 Riquewihr Lost Slough Vineyard Gewurtztraminer to us poor Torontonians and we were astounded at its key lime pie flavor. Amazing that Gewurz could even do that.
I think poor old Gewurztraminer tends to languish in the shadow of Riesling and Pinot Gris from the regions where Gewurtz is best produced which is kind of a shame.
I am doing my part to REPRESENT.
Sicko good Gewurz from Bott-Geyl, Dirler-Cade, Justin Boxler, and Deiss (Gewurz based field blends).
To my taste, Alsace is THE place, followed by Alto Adige.
No disrespect to you left coasters out there fighting the good fight, I just haven’t tried your wines!
Respect to ye olde spiced traminer! (Gewurz in German literally means “spice”)
Very good work on the grapes! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
I’m generally not a big fan of the grape, but I love the 2013 Analemma Vineyards Atavus Vineyard gewurtz. Analemma is a fairly new winery in the Hood River / Columbia Gorge area. Visited their tasting room last Saturday when it was too smoky to hike at Mt. Hood (which was our original plan for the day). The Atavus is dry as a bone, high acid, and yet still aromatic. Atavus Vineyard is on the WA side of the river at 1700’. My favorite gewurtz so far (not a big fan of sweet ones).
A few years ago I had the Cartograph gewurtz which I recall was also excellent, if perhaps a bit less dry.
Nothing better with vindaloo than a good Z-H gewurz