GEWÜRZTRAMINER

  • Aromas and flavors:  perfumey scent, spicy, floral (rose petals), fruity (citrus, grapefruit, peach), lychee nut, cold cream, honey, jasmine tea, heavy-oily texture
  • Low to medium acidity and one of the most full-bodied whites
  • Gewürztraminer is one of the most pungent wine varietals, easy to recognize by its heady, aromatic scent
  • Gewürztraminer began in Italy’s Tyrollean Alps, near the village of Termeno (Tramin) in Alto Adige
  • Since the Middle Ages, the parent variety traminer has grown there (grown widely throughout Eastern Europe traminer berries are pale green and make much less appealing wine, hardly scented at all)
  • Traminer vines do have a propensity to mutate.  A few centuries ago, one of these mutations resulted in a vine that produces dark pinkish-brown, spotted berries and makes very distinctive and heady wine
  • In the late 19th century, the Alsatians began calling this vine gewürztraminer, but it wasn’t until 1973 that this name was officially sanctioned
  • “Gewürz” translates from German as “spicy” or “perfumed”
  • Alsace has achieved the most success with Gewürztraminer
  • It buds early in the Spring, so it is particularly susceptible to damage from frost
  • Vines are not very productive, with small clusters, so there is a great temptation for growers to over-crop, which results in dilute, lightweight wine
  • The berries, with their thick and tough skins, can attain high sugar levels of amazing concentration
  • Alcohol levels can get quite high in dry versions
  • Pleasant results are nearly impossible in warm climates due to early ripening causing varietal characteristics to be met with low sugar levels and high acid
  • Wines colored from light to dark golden yellow with a copper tone, depending upon the fruit ripeness