WTN: '05 Navarro Gewurz, "Cuvee Traditional"

Opened this to go with mussels in green curry. It comes in at 13.5% alcohol, 0.3% RS, $14 (as per their website).

Very pale straw color. Reticent nose with some floral character. In the mouth, we're talking dry gewurz. There's a taut acidic core that's overlaid with some floral-peach fruit. Depending on the temperature of the wine, the mouthfeel goes from dry and almost chalky to somewhat oily (although the acidity it there either way). There's also a touch of pleasant bitterness. The finish is long and complex with the acidity, fruit, and bitter character all playing roles. There's a lot going on in this stuff.

This went very well with the (somewhat disappointing) mussels. But supper was over a couple of hours ago and I keep going back to pour a little bit more of this wine into my glass....

Mike

[Jenise]

I'm not a fan of the grape, but is there a better domestic gewurz maker than Navarro? They seem to get the angularity of the Alsatians just right. Must have been a great match with your mussels, other problems aside.

IMHO Navarro is the QPR leader in California wines IMHO.

They're definitely way high on the QPR scale. We went through what they had open in the tasting room last March and the wines were uniformly interesting, complex, and food-friendly. And cheap!

And it did go well with the curry. It was a green curry with plenty of mint, cilantro, cumin, and coconut milk and some potatoes thrown in for good measure. That over rice with the gewurz was delicious.


Mike

I'm not a fan of the grape, but is there a better domestic gewurz maker than Navarro? They seem to get the angularity of the Alsatians just right. Must have been a great match with your mussels, other problems aside.

Lazy Creek, also in the Anderson Valley, does IMO a more compelling (dry) Gewürz, though I have no objection to Navarro's either.

Mark Lipton