Grape Varietals

Wine Baby’s Guide to: Gewürztraminer

Are you familiar with the beautifully aromatic power house that is Gewürztraminer?

I know the name looks a bit intimidating, but it’s definitely a wine that needs to be added to your repertoire if it isn’t already!

Let’s start with a pronunciation lesson first, just to get that out of the way. Nobody wants to get embarrassed trying to order their wine from the sommelier!

Repeat after me: guh-VERTZ-tram-mee-ner. guhVERTZ-trameener. Gewürztraminer!

And if you want to cheat a bit, most wine geeks and somms will know what you mean if you just say “gewurz” [guh-VERTZ].

(Wanna know a secret? Despite being able to pronounce it, apparently I couldn’t spell it! I just realized this morning that I’ve been spelling it with an extra T all this time. Oops!)

TASTING GEWÜRZTRAMINER

Now that we’ve got that down, let’s talk about why you NEED this wine in your life.

(A) it’s beautifully aromatic. It’s no lie when I say that my ideal perfume smells exactly like a Gewürztraminer. In fact, I bought one perfume about 5 years ago that smells incredibly close. It’s the only one I go back to over and over again.

(Pro-tip: perfume is a no-no at wine tastings. The wine should be the only thing you and the people around you are sniffing.)

(B) it’s incredibly complex, but also super easy to identify. Getting into blind tasting and want to have a solid win in your pocket? Get to know this one.

(C) it’s a great wine to share with your friends who “only like sweet wine”. Yes, there are sweet and medium-sweet options out there, BUT one of the cool things about Gewürztraminer is that it’s aromas and flavours are really good at tricking our brains into thinking it’s sweet, even if it’s fermented fully dry!

Sound tempting enough yet? Let’s dive in.

Colour

The colour of this wine is definitely a stand-out feature.

The berries themselves actually have a pinkish hue to their skins. It is a clone variation of one of the “founder varieties” of most grapes: savagnin. It has been found to be planted a several places around the world, where it’s names vary, but typically involve “traminer”.

Because of the colourful berries, the resulting wine is much deeper in pigment than most other whites. It is decidedly deep gold in colour, and can even start to develop peachy or coppery tones.

There are only a few white grapes that look like this, so it’s a great tip to keep in mind when blind tasting.

Nose

The nose is the second stand-out feature for Gewürztraminer.

Not only is it intensely aromatic and perfumed, it also has highly recognizable qualities that separate it from other white wines.

“Gewurz” actually translates to “spice” in German, although it’s meaning is more along the lines of “perfumed”. Both all great memory cues for the key characteristic aromas of Gewürztraminer.

The first is the spice notes. Ginger and gingerbread are particularly well-known notes, but cloves and nutmeg may be present as well. Then soft baking spices rather than harsh chili spices.

The second is the floral notes. We are talking beautiful rose aromas, almost sickeningly sweet.

And to round those out, we have luscious tropical fruit aromas. Lychee is a key one, but you will also pick up on grapefruit, tangerine, orange marmalade, and maybe even fruit cocktail syrup.

Gewürztraminer is not a great wine for long-term aging. Even the best ones tap out at mid-term in order to keep their fine form. The ones that can age longer than the first few years will develop notes of honey and dried fruit.

Palate

The first thing you will notice about Gewürztraminer when tasting it is it’s rich mouth-feel and full body. Other wines that are comparable in weight having typically undergone malolactic fermentation and/or were aged in oak, but that’s not the case with Gewürztraminer.

Because of it’s beautiful florals, winemakers prefer to use only inert vessels. Choices include stainless steel, concrete, or oak so old that it no longer imparts any flavour.

Some of that fuller body can be attributed to it’s medium to high levels of alcohol. Because of the high levels of sugar that Gewürztraminer develops during ripening, it’s easy to find wines with 13 and 14% alcohol when it’s fermented dry.

In terms of sweetness, you will find a wide range of available options. Most are fermented dry, but there are plenty of medium-sweet options out there too. It’s also a popular varietal for late-harvest wines (“vendanges tardives” in French), which come with a range of sweetness. Or botrytis-affected wines, which will always be very sweet.

Unfortunately, not all bottles of Gewürztraminer will tell you up front what sweetness level you are getting. And Gewürztraminer is a prime example of a wine that is so fruity and full of florals that it can trick our minds into thinking it’s sweet, even if it’s bone dry.

Finally, likely the last thing you’ll pick up on is the acid. Why last? Because it’s lower than many other whites, with just enough to lift the wine slightly. Without it, it can feel flabby and dull.

It is this lack of acid that makes it less suitable for long-term aging than, say, a Riesling for example. Gewürztraminer is instead best enjoyed young, cellaring for only 1 to 5 years. Even the best bottles out there are suited just for mid-term aging, lest you loose the acidity, florals, and ripe fruit that make it so beautiful.

PAIRING GEWÜRZTRAMINER

There’s lots of room to play with how you pair Gewürztraminer. The classic pairing is rich pork dishes with complex flavours that play off the medley of aromas found in the wine. Pork sautéed with apples would be an excellent example, because the apples helps to highlight the fruit notes.

Along that same thought process, you could also pair it with other dishes with a fruit component. Think duck with figs, or roasted chicken with an apricot glaze.

We could also take it in a different direction and pair it with Moroccan or Indian food, highlighting the spice and floral notes. These are also amazing options if your Gewürztraminer of choice has a bit of sweetness to it. Sweetness helps neutralize some of the actual spices in the food.

SHOPPING FOR GEWÜRZTRAMINER

Currently, there is one place to go for Gewürztraminer that is head and shoulders above the rest of the world. Just take yourself straight on into the French section of your wine shop and look for Alsace.

Alsace is a stunning beautiful gem, tucked away from the rest of France behind the Vosges Mountains, bordering with Germany. Because of the land’s strategic location, it has changed hands many times over the years. As a result it has been left with significant German influence not only in it’s architecture, but also it’s wine. Learn more about Alsace here.

This has been the ideal spot for Gewürztraminer, which thrives in cool to moderate climates.

It’s original home is believed to actually be Italy, but very little is grown there now. If you do find great Italian examples, they are going to come from Trentino-Alto Adige.

There are also small plantings in many other Eastern European countries, as it is starting to grow in popularity. Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Ukraine are all getting in on it.

Outside of Europe, you may find some in New Zealand. Australia is generally too hot except in the far South. Washington and Oregon also have a small selection, but California faces the same problem as Australia, with only a few locations cool enough.

Perhaps Canada, with our cooler climate, will start to become a new hot spot? I hear our Okanagan growing conditions are pretty similar to Alsace!

Have you tried Gewürztraminer yet? If not, why not? What are you waiting for?!