[WTN] Caves de Turckheim 2005 Gewurztraminer

A relative, upon learning that I'd become interested in wine, insisted that I try some Alsace Gewurztraminer as it was one of his favourites. So we went into town and bought a bottle from the off-license. I wasn't familiar with the grape so I was keen to give it a try.

=====

The wine has the characteristic smell of lychees that go with this varietal, with a little unripe melon and to my surprise I could also detect the faint beginnings of the scent that I've heard some people describe as "bacon fat" - a most unlikely smell for a wine.

I got another surprise when the wine hit the palate - the dominant flavour wasn't the fruit but spicy ginger which lasted all the way through the mouthful and was the primary constituent of the wine's long finish. The fruit does come through quickly though - lychee, melon and an amount of floral honeysuckle.

The wine is fairly well balanced with acid to compensate for a certain sweetness. After several mouthfuls of this stuff I did find the sweet quality started to become cloying, but that's probably just me - I do tend to like my white very dry indeed.

=====

I can absolutely see why some people say this is the only wine that can partner spicy food - and I'm looking forward to giving that combination a try.

I find it slightly more puzzling that the varietal is said to be very easy to identify - it's certainly unusual but I think I could pick out Sauvignon Blanc with greater ease. For me, the biggest signature in this wine was the ginger, which I suspect is a little atypical for the grape.

I think you have summed up this varietal very well Matt. I love wines from Alsace and have fond memories of my visits. Turckheim is a charming village.

I wouldn't call the ginger atypical, but to me the dominant characteristics of Gewurz are the floral and lychee notes. I do find Gewurz probably the easiest grape to identify quickly blind. SB is also aromatic and distinctive, but is made in a lot of different styles- put a NZ SB, white Bdx that is primarily SB, a Quincy or Sancerre, and an oaked Cal SB together and the differences are as apparent as the similarities. But Gewurz from Alsace, northern Italy, NY state, and California together and my guess is the similarities are more noticable than the differences (of course, specific wine choices could accentuate or blur differences).

MattThr

I got another surprise when the wine hit the palate - the dominant flavour wasn't the fruit but spicy ginger which lasted all the way through the mouthful and was the primary constituent of the wine's long finish

We accidentally discovered how well Gewurztraminer goes with ginger last Christmas when munching on some of Nancy's Gingerbread Men after a dinner with Gewurztraminer. It was one of the few truly seamless food-wine pairings I've ever had. A few months later we paired a Gewurztraminer with thin ginger snaps at an AWS tasting. Big hit.

We accidentally discovered how well Gewurztraminer goes with ginger last Christmas when munching on some of Nancy's Gingerbread Men...

Yummmm. Wine and cookies. My two favourite food groups.