2007 Trimbach Gewürztraminer Alsace

I have to admit to being a little apprehensive about this wine. As you know if you read my second to last post, I am somewhat of a slave to the gewurztraminer. I love it, and even if it's not a very highly credentialed one, I'll likely drink it with pleasure. My concern has to do with the Trimbach part. Trimbach has a widely-known and respected name, but I've witnessed some substantial variation between vintages and between bottles in his wines. I've really enjoyed his rieslings in the past, but the last pinot gris I tasted put me in mind of a shiitake and radish-scented candle. Why someone would create such a candle, I don't know - and I don't know why one would make a wine that tasted like that either.

The wine is a medium-deep yellow-gold gold in the glass and is ripe with stone fruits - yellow plums and apricots - and spicy nutmeg. Alas, no lychees, but I'll live. When I first pulled the cork, I got a hint of a chemically smell that could have been volatile acidity, but it has since blown off, and the aromas are sweet and lush.

In the mouth, it's quite elegant. There is a hint of sweetness, though it's all but cancelled out by the bracing acidity. The flavors pick up the ripe fruits of the aromas, evolving into a spicy, almost green finish resminiscent of scallions. It's a bit bitter on the palate, and the acidity does dominate the senses, but all in all it's a nice drinking wine that is making me yearn for a sweet onion tart. Oddly enough.  They do say that Alsatian wines pair well with onions, so maybe I'm onto something!

Vintage: 2007
Grape: Gewurztraminer
Region: Alsace, France
Price: $18

2009 Columbia Crest Gewürztraminer Washington Two Vines

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