One can only guess at the number of people who do not or will not drink gewurztraminer because they can`t get past the name.
Actually, it`s not so difficult; so long as you put the accent on the
”wurz,” it doesn`t matter much what you do with the other four syllables.
Further confusing things, it`s a French wine with a German, or at least Germanic, name.
Alsace, up in the northeast corner of France, tucked between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine, is the traditional home of the gewurztraminer grape and the wine made from it. In fact, the grape, under its own or some other names, is found in most eastern European wine countries.
It seems to have come from northern Italy originally-references to it have been found dating back almost 900 years-and to have traveled along the ancient trade routes into what are now Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary, the Ukraine, Germany and France.
Until a wine-doctoring scandal destroyed Austria`s export market four years ago, small quantities of Austrian gewurztraminer would find their way to this country. German gewurztraminer, usually known simply as traminer, almost never journeys to these shores.
”Gewurz” means spice, and although the wine is not spicy, the gewurztraminer is supposed to be a more intense, flavorful grape than the traminer.
Gewurztraminer, and all Alsatian wines for that matter, have always been tough to sell in this country. But then we do have our own.
West Coast wine makers have been experimenting with and producing gewurztraminers for at least 20 years. In California, the grape runs up against the same problem as do most grapes from northern climates: Much of the region is just too hot. For the most part, though, it does better in this country than its Teutonic cousin, the riesling, whose wine here is often flat and characterless.
One of the more hospitable places for gewurztraminer in this country turns out to be Long Island, where vineyards are flourishing 80 miles east of the Empire State Building.
Gewurztraminer has a magnificent, heady scent and a distinctive, rich taste virtually impossible to describe. Some people talk of peaches, others of litchis; neither is close.
It is quite dry, a surprise for newcomers after the intense, flowery bouquet. It is a white wine but the color is golden, with a slight red touch. The grapes have a reddish tinge on the vine and at least one American producer, Sebastiani Vineyards, has made a gewurztraminer that is really a rose.
Like rieslings and Sauternes, gewurztraminers can be made in increasing degrees of natural sweetness.
In years when the warm Alsatian summer lingers into late autumn and the rains hold off, some producers will make a ”vendange tardive,” which means late harvest. The grapes are left on the vine long after the regular harvest time, losing their excess water and concentrating their sugars and flavors, usually with the help of a special botrytis mold.
Beyond vendange tardive wines are the even richer gewurztraminers,
”selections de grains nobles.” These are remarkably intense and very expensive wines for which only the ripest individual grapes are taken from each late-harvest bunch.
Still a third type of late-harvest wine is ice wine, made in Germany, Alsace and, occasionally, in the Finger Lakes district of New York.
The grapes are left on the vine into frigid November or December, when the water in the fruit freezes, leaving only concentrated juice and sugar. The wine is made when conditions permit and in very small quantities.
The best-known Alsatian wine houses in this country are Hugel and Trimbach. Like most Alsatian producers, they buy most of their grapes from small farms all over Alsace. But they also have either special-reserve selections or single privately owned vineyards from which they make special wines.
Hugel`s best gewurztraminer is its Reserve Personnelle; Trimbach`s is its Cuvee Ribeaupierre. At Domaine Weinbach, made famous by the late Theo Faller, the finest gewurztraminer is named in his honor, Cuvee Theo. At Willm, another prominent firm, the private gewurztraminer vineyard is Clos Gaensbroennel.
One of the best producers in Alsace is Zind-Humbrecht, which puts out a range of intense gewurztraminers from various vineyards, not necessarily their own. Its best wines include: Gueberschwihr, Goldert, Rangen, Heimbourg, Hengst and Herrenweg Turckheim. Its crowning achievement is probably the gewurztraminer Rangen Grand Cru, Clos St.-Urbain, Selections de Grains Nobles. Since the wines from individual vineyards are produced separately, they are made only in small batches and are very expensive.
One could say, too, that they are not beginners` wines. They are intense, concentrated wines that, in the case of recent vintages like 1985 and 1986, need several years in the bottle to be at their best.
The best recent gewurztraminer vintage was 1983, with 1985 not far behind. The 1981s were good, the 1986s uneven but with some good wines to be found. Unlike less sturdy white wines, good gewurztraminers will last 10 years or more.
California gewurztraminers often display the floweriness and unmistakable perfume of the grape, but they rarely achieve the intensity of flavor of the Alsatian wines.
One problem: They are so high in alcohol that they have to be picked long before they have the proper acidity. Acid can be added after fermentation, but it`s not the same thing.
Even so, some pleasant wines are made every year.
Some of the best are the least pretentious, easy-drinking wines that taste great well-chilled on a hot day. One of the best of these is made by Fetzer Vineyards. At about $6, it`s a perfect summer wine, far preferable to most white zinfandels, which really have no character at all.
Sebastiani Vineyards` gewurztraminer, with just a touch of sweetness, is similarly attractive. The gewurztraminer from Lenz Vineyards, on Long Island, is found mostly in and around New York, and is worth sampling. It`s leaner than the California wines but just as intense.
A few California wineries have produced good late-harvest gewurztraminers, notably Joseph Phelps in the Napa Valley, Clos du Bois and Field Stone Winery in the Alexander Valley in Sonoma County and Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino County`s Anderson Valley. Remarkably, these wines don`t cost much more than the regular gewurztraminers, which makes them excellent values compared with their French counterparts.
A few widely available gewurztraminers and approximate prices:
Willm 1983 Cuvee Emile, $13; Willm 1985 Clos Gaensbroennel Vendange Tardive, $30; Hugel 1986, $10; Trimbach 1985, $8; Trimbach 1983 Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre, $13; Rutherford Hill (Calif.) 1986, $6.25; Clos du Bois 1986, late-harvest, half-bottle, $15.
