TNs: Gewurztraminer Icewine vs Gewurztraminer VT

WINE TALK
1

Berserkers,

This weekend I opened up one of my last two remaining Gewurztraminer icewine bottles and for fun decided to crack open one of my four Z-H Vielle Vignes Gewurztraminer VTs to compare and contrast the two. Quite fun. Let’s see how they stack against each other:

PALATINE HILLS 2008 GEWURZTRAMINER ICEWINE – The smoothest textured icewine I have ever tasted to date. Rich golden color, lovely nose of poached pears, ginger spice and honey. In the mouth, medium-bodied which is actually much lighter than you would expect for an icewine with high alcohol and residual sugar (11% ABV and 180 g/L of RS) and extremely velvety in mouthfeel like light cream. Powerful tastes of ginger, lychee, mangoes, vanilla, caramel, honey and poached pears. Surprisingly complex for an icewine. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

ZIND-HUMBRECHT 2010 VIELLES VIGNES VENDANGES GEWURZTRAMINER TARDIVES – Though officially labelled as a VT, this Alsacian sweetie really straddles the line between VT and SGN as it is quite sweet and there is definite botrytis influence that goes far beyond what I have tasted in many other VTs. Light gold in the glass, medium bodied, surprisingly strong ginger spice nose with a touch of nostril burning heat. It take a number of sniffs to get past the heat and ginger and pick up some lychee aromas.

In the mouth, medium-bodied, light straw gold color and explosive tastes of lcyhees, sweet golden pineapple, ginger spice, and mangoes as well as a slight touch of botrytis glycerin. All of it hits at once on the palate. Wow. Absolutely superb stuff with great aging potential but still incredible at this relatively young age. Makes an incredibly strong argument for VT and SGN supplanting Sauternes as my favourite French sweet wine. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

AGAINST EACH OTHER:

  • The most striking difference between the two wines was the mouthfeel and texture. The icewine was velvety smooth. Most icewine is, to be fair, but that texture tends to be lost once the intense sweetness hits the palate but it is an important makeup of the overall experience of the wine that makes it actually quite mellow. It really stood out against the VT.

  • The next most striking and most obvious is, of course, the sheer complexity and explosiveness of the VT. I may have been thrown off by the mellowness of the icewine but everything hits you with the VT all at once like a bus. Quite a fun experience for a sweet wine.

  • Both wines had strikingly similar strong ginger spice noses despite the completely different methods of arriving at their vinification. They also had similar notes of ginger and lychees. The icewine had more pear flavor whereas the VT had more pineapple.

  • Many 2008 icewines are at their peak now, just starting to maderize which adds a nice touch of caramel, toffee and honey to them and this was not different but it also indicates they are not long for this world as they will not age well. Consume any 08 icewines you have now. The VT, in contrast, has a very long life ahead of it.

I was quite happy to have had both wines. I’m even happier that it is my last 08 Gewurztraminer icewine and that I have three more VTs left. Excellent sweet wine experience having them both on the same weekend. [cheers.gif]

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I’m not a big fan of ZH’s regular style but their VT wines can be mind blowing. I had a wildly good 1990 Clos Windsbuhl Pinot Gris VT last year.

3

While I love Zind-Humbrecht’s regular style of wines myself – particularly their Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris – I will also be the first to admit they seduce me with their over the top RS levels for supposed table wine and somewhat intense concentration.

In fact, it’s sometimes very difficult not to think of their regular style Gewurz and PG wines as dessert wines in and of themselves! Their regular wines taste like VTs from any other domaine and their VTs taste like SGNs as my notes clearly indicate.

If there’s a French translation of the motto “Go big or go home” there must be a plaque hanging on each and every stainless steel fermenter in their tank room. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. flirtysmile

4

This is another wine type I’ve never experienced. Thanks for the interesting notes Tran!

5

Mike, we’ll shake you out of cab-land yet [grin.gif]. Craig–evidence that those last forever too, isn’t it?

Thanks for checking in on these Tran. I agree, the 08 icewines have to be consumed in the next year or two for best showing, at least the Gewurtz variants. Did you give the VT any decant/air time?

Well done on some very descriptive notes.

Sante,

Mike

6

Thanks Mike. And yes, anyone stuck in Cab-Land needs to be rescued with some sweet wine. :wink:

No decanting on the ZH VV VT, Mike. The magic that decanting did to your 01 Yquem aside, when tasting for myself only I usually never decant a botrytised wine just because I like getting the full effect of the wine on full blast, as it were, and then seeing how it evolves over a week’s time as I drink it.

The most striking example of this is when I opened a 2006 De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon a couple of years ago I acquired from the SAQ before they were being brought in to the LCBO regularly starting with the 07 vintage.

It was full bore tingly boytrytis glycerin and explosive mango and pineapple for the first two days… and then suddenly became this creamy tropical custard flavored wine that bore virtually no resemblance to the bomb it was when I opened it. I’m expecting something similar to happen to the ZH VV VT and will report back in a couple of days… assuming the bottle lasts that long…

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Tran:

You need to be rescued from “Sticky Land”. I thought Mike and group were working on that. Just carry on and drink Pinot. [cheers.gif]

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Brian: Why would I ever want to be rescued from Sticky Land? It’s such a happy sweet place, unlike Cab Land which is dreary, dull, overhyped and overwrought. :stuck_out_tongue:

Speaking of Pinot, at a recent wine seminar fellow Berserker Mike Grammer hosted at the Scandinavian-Canadian club recently, I did go head over heels for the Littorai 2007 Savoy Vineyard Pinot Noir. And Jay got me into dry Rhone white wine with a bottle of Clos Saint Jean Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc. Plus, I’ve flipped for Nicolas Joly’s Coulée de Serrant.

So the guys are working on it. It’s just taking a lot longer than they thought it would.

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Gewürztraminer VT is perhaps the most opulent wine in the world. I love it, but even as a huge fan of sweet wines I take it in small doses.

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I have no idea. The 1990 was the oldest I’ve had and I guess it could go 20 more years easily. Who knows?

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Tran—you could bring it over on Saturday… [grin.gif] then we can assess the open-ageing curve together…

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Criag - I am not a fan of ZH’s wines but love and much prefer regular style wines from Trimbach.

Tran - I love to read your TNs and thank for sharing your views. [cheers.gif]