6 Gewurztraminers

As I mentioned, yesterday we tasted 6 Gewürztraminer with the winery staff. It's always nice to taste blind with the staff as you get a lot of honest opinions and some insight into how your wine looks in it's peer group. All wine tasted blind. I posted these from Cellar Tracker, if you are into wine and don't know about this site, fix it in a hurry!

• 2003 Cesconi Trentino Traminer Aromatico - Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Trentino (1/16/2008)
  Very pungent with high tone ginger, lime, some floral elements with candied fruit, pungent spice and fresh herbs. With air some red pepper elements really come for. Very complex if somewhat herbal nose. Very interesting and complex. Heady and rich in the mouth with exotic fruit and spice flavors.


• 2004 Claiborne and Churchill Gewürztraminer Alsatian Style - USA, California, Central Coast (1/16/2008)
  Sweet melon and orange marmalade one the nose with some green grass and herbal notes. Dry and lighter in style with firm acidity. Some pear and apple fruit complement the fine texture.


• 2005 Bott Frères Gewürztraminer Reserve Personelle - France, Alsace, Alsace AOC (1/16/2008)
  Smokey and spicy with bosc pear mango and ginger nose. Very rich and oily in the mouth with a good dose of ssweetness, balanced somewhat by the oiliness. Very full with cashew, smoke and exotic fruit flavors. very big and complex but a touch too flabby, saved only by the oily texture.


• 2005 Francis Tannahill Gewürztraminer Dragonfly - USA, Washington (1/16/2008)
  Some vanilla mango and pear on the ripe-fruit flavored nose. Fairly sweet and a little flabby with herbs, pear and persimmon flavors.


• 2006 Londer Gewürztraminer Dry - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley (1/16/2008)
  Vanilla/linalool aromas with candied fruit, crystallized ginger and some citrus on the very sweet-fruit driven nose. Needs some air to open. Dry and steely with zingy flavors of herbs, flowers and melon. Fairly lean and showing pretty tight.


• 2006 Thomas Fogarty Gewürztraminer - USA, California, Central Coast, Monterey County (1/16/2008)
  Pungent spice, with chile, clove and ginger flavors complementing cashew and pineapple fruit. Good weight in the mouth with good balance of richness and acidity. very spicy in the mouth with more ginger and candied fruit flavors. Long finish.

Posted from CellarTracker

The Londer is always one of my favorites. This was my first go at the '06 and it seemed pretty tight; a few months in the bottle should do wonders.

The '04 C&C is from the Ventana Vineyard, where we sourced 50% of our 06 Monterey Gewurz. It was a really pretty wine, much more feminine than others in the tasting. It showed some similarities to ours; maybe that terroir thing is for real.

The Oregon entry, Francis Tannahill, was very fruit driven and had a beautiful floral nose. I'd like to see a bit more cut or structure but it was undeniably lush.

The Bott Freres is a new Alsatian producer to me. It showed the oily characteristics the varietal is noted for, but was pretty sweet. I liked the wine but It is further proof that "Alsatian" style is anything but dry these days. Maybe it is the house style, again I am unfamiliar with the producer, but it seemed a bit too cloying.

The star of the tasting for me was the Cesconi. What a fabulous and exotic take on Gewurz. I will definitely seek out more wine from this producer from Trentino-Alto Adige. Superb stuff and very compelling wine.

This was a fun look at a few wines and I found a real winner in the Cesconi, gotta get more from this producer.