Blind Wine Tasting Notes: Gewurztraminer

I recently began hosting biweekly blind tastings at my home as a series of small-group learning experiences. Five of us got together last Thursday evening to taste Gewurztraminer wines.

Gewurztraminers, with their floral, spicy aromatics and slightly sweet lychee-nut taste, are an excellent match for fresh fruit and cheeses and a good complement to many simple fish and chicken dishes, especially recipes that include pepper spices, oriental five-spice, or even curry. These are especially excellent wines to serve chilled in warm weather, and I complemented them with slices of sourdough bread and Chevre, Gruyere, and Boursin cheeses; one bottle’s label suggests trying Munster or blue-veined cheeses.

Of the five wines we compared, three were produced in Alsace, France; one originates from Alexander Valley in California; and one is from New Zealand. As you’ll see from the results below – and being no great surprise to me – the Alsatian wines tallied well with the group.

The Alsace appellation was a definite influence on my purchase of the Schlumberger; the interesting aspect being that at this particular tasting, we scored two identical bottles. Why did one win group favor and the other take third place? Probably because I had poured mine right out of the refrigerator; the other, though having been chilled all day, had ample chance to warm up inside an attendee’s car on an evening that was a tad above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The group, on such an evening, easily favored the cooler of the two.

The wines listed below are ranked top-down, most favorite to least favorite; each is followed by the wine’s heat (alcohol content). If no link exists for a particular label, that label is quite possibly no longer available.

In the left column is the actual group score for each wine using my 20-point Wine Scoring Sheet.

Group Ranking
+3: 2003 Domaines Schlumberger, Fleur, Alsace, France; 13.5%
+1: 2003 Pierre Sparr, Alsace, France; 13.5%
-1: 2003 Domaines Schlumberger, Fleur, Alsace, France; 13.5%
-1: 2004 Huia, Marlborough Vineyard, New Zealand; 14.5%
-2: 2005 New Gewurz North Coast, Alexander Valley Vineyards, Healdsburg; 12.8%

Winehiker’s Ranking
2003 Domaines Schlumberger, Fleur, Alsace, France; 13.5%
2003 Pierre Sparr, Alsace, France; 13.5%
2004 Huia, Marlborough Vineyard, New Zealand; 14.5%
2003 Domaines Schlumberger, Fleur, Alsace, France; 13.5%
2005 New Gewurz North Coast, Alexander Valley Vineyards, Healdsburg; 12.8%

As you can see, my picks were fairly consistent with the group’s; I definitely like my Gewurz’s chilled. Conclusion: you sure can’t miss with those Alsatian Gewurztraminers!

~winehiker

This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 3:01 pm and is filed under group tasting notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Blind Wine Tasting Notes: Gewurztraminer”

Rebecca
August 1st, 2006 13:30
1

Hi Russ,

Thanks again for your gracious hosting last night.
We’ll talk more about it on Sunday, which is why I
didn’t bother to send a thank you note. HOWEVER, I do
find myself wanting to send a note about something
else. I just went to visit your blog to see our
correspondence there (a little strange to see up on a
website, I must admit) and while looking around, I
read your most recent blog post. It inspires me to
say two things to you: 1) you really write very well
(but I’ve said that before.) 2) The opener of this
post -especially the second sentence- is not only
beautifully composed, it also has so much wisdom, as
well as relevance to me, and it really, really touched
me.

Just wanted to say that. I don’t know if you ever
read Rumi, but I often do, and have been especially
reading him in recent days and weeks. And whenever I
read him, I always end coming across something that
jumps out of the page at me because it speaks so
directly to feelings, events, issues I am living
through at whatever moment I pick up the Rumi
writings. I had the exact same experience when I read
the opener to your blog. So thank you for that, it
was a startling and sweet moment to read something
that spoke to me so directly and so personally.

It’s nice to know there are people like you around
-radiant with positive energy and pure kindness.

R
winehiker
October 27th, 2006 14:54
2

I must admit that I don’t know much about Rumi, but just maybe I’ll find more ways to communicate my deeper thoughts to you and everyone. Thank you for your extraordinarily kind words, Rebecca.