Most people would probably look at me as though I had just sprouted a third head if I said, "I've really been craving a gewürztraminer lately." But I'm confident that most people reading this will know what I'm talking about and realize it is not an unusual eastern European sausage variety. I love gewürztraminer's rich fruity flavors and aromas, and I love the touch of sweetness that you get in the best of them. This, I have to say, is probably not the best of them. It was the only one they had at Trader Joe's and I was desperate. But I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
I can tell by looking at it that it has some sweetness to it. Sugar and alcohol can both make a wine viscous, and I'm willing to bet this wine isn't too high in alcohol. Because of their inherent high sugar content, gewürztraminer grapes can make high alcohol wines if fermented dry, so I suppose it could go either way. But my vote is for sweet.
The wine is strangely unaromatic for a gewürztraminer. I've read that gewürztraminer grapes and lychees share some aromatic compounds, hence the signature lychee aroma you often get in a gewürztraminer. This wine doesn't have even a hint of it. There is some ripe apricot, a sweet malty aroma, and honey, but no lychee. I can't pretend not to be a little disappointed (lychees always remind me of my graduate work in Mexico, when the little kids in the village where I was working would bring me bags of lychees). But the wine is surprisingly flavorful in the mouth. More apricot, as well as something a little petrol-like (I would easily mistake this for a riesling in a blind tasting, actually), and not a little sweetness. The acidity is lower than I like, and that plus the viscosity makes the wine a little flabby, although the sweetness could be camouflaging the sourness a bit. There is certainly some alcohol content, but it's not out of whack.
Overall, this is a wine that I wouldn't turn up my nose at, were someone to hand me a bottle. Of course, short of a bottle of sherry (a.k.a. salted mushrooms stuffed into a dirty gym sock and buried in the back yard for 3 months), there really aren't any wines I'd refuse to drink. I'm not as much of a snob as I pretend to be.
Vintage: 2009
Grape: Gewürztraminer
Region: Washington State
Price: $7
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