Marglin on Taste

Gewürztraminers make for lively and unusual wines. Stunning, unique, sensual, and spicy, the varietal has its origins in the Alto Adige region of Northeastern Italy. Located near Austria, the region surrounds the village of Tramin that gives the grape its name. Alto Adige whites tend to be lively and zesty, with a distinctly racy cast; in Italy, gewürztraminers are called either Traminer Aromatico (gewürz means spicy or aromatic in German) or just Traminer. In Austria, they can also be called Roter Traminer or Gelber Traminer (red and yellow, respectively). But, though Italy still makes some fine exemplars, gewürztraminer’s best expressions now hail from Alsace.

Just as pinot noirs and chardonnays are associated first and foremost with Burgundy, gewürztraminers are the pride and joy of Alsace, which lies in the French Rhine valley, along the German border. Like the premier Burgundian varietals, gewürztraminers are now made around the world. Like pinot noir, they take quite an effort to get right. Both gewürztraminers and pinot noirs have extremely distinctive tastes, with nuances and subtleties, and both allow winemakers ample room for expression.

Gewürztraminers start with flowery notes on the nose “” some detect rose petals, but I smell honeysuckle. They’re fruity, but not necessarily sweet. In Alsatian vintages, minerals and litchi nuts predominate both up front and on the finish, with tropical fruit, minerals, grapefruit, musk, and other fragrant flowers in the middle. Gewürztraminers made in other parts of the world echo some of these qualities, while never quite capturing all of them, and they tend to be drier, without the Alsatian sweetness or pronounced tropical fruitiness. But no matter, because to my palate, all gewürztraminers “” usually pure and unblended “” taste pretty darned interesting.

These are excellent wines for both bland and spicy foods, as incongruous as that may seem. Their fruitiness cuts through Thai, Indian, and other Asian and Eastern spices; because they like to be chilled, they’ll refresh and cool your mouth. But turkey, a rather bland meat, is also well set off by the combination of fruit and dryness, and gewürztraminers have long been a Thanksgiving favorite of mine.

So these wines present contradictions and complexities, they pair well with a wide range of food, they’re unique, unusual, seductive, and at their best silky-smooth. Then why aren’t more folks drinking them?

The name may be one impediment. The fact that few Alsatian wines are expensive or marketed very well may be another. It’s possible that many wine people just haven’t caught on yet. But I’m not the only wine writer willing to tout gewürztraminers, and more are bound to follow. I’m predicting a sharp rise in popularity for this quirky grape in the coming years.

For this column, I sampled gewürztraminers from around the world. Not surprisingly, one favorite comes from the Alto Adige in Italy, while another hails from New Zealand, which tends to be competitive in all the varietals it attempts. British Columbia makes some at least one nice ones. Oregon, Washington, and New York have all made eminently drinkable bottles. California has dozens, though they don’t tend to sell very well. While none of the gewürztraminers from outside Alsace matches that region’s best in depth, complexity, or quality, even relatively average attempts still impress, and they accompany many cuisines excellently.

So if you’re feeling a bit spicy, or you’re eating spicy food, give gewürztraminers a go. This eccentric-tasting varietal may be hard to pronounce, but its wines are delightfully delicious and easy to drink.

1999 Lunare Gewürztraminer Cantina Terlano Alto Adige Italy. Blind, you’d guess Alsatian. This is deep, with all the usual taste suspects, including a dash of vanilla to go with the gingerbread, litchi, tropical fruit, and honeysuckle. For spicy mustard or a spicier Mediterranean fish dish. More expensive than many, but well worth it.

2001 Husch Gewürztraminer Anderson Valley (California). Almost too fruity, but so affordable! It’s perfect with well-spiced Indian dishes, like chicken vindaloo or a nice lamb biryani. Green apple, white peaches, and a fresh and efficacious finish. We’ll see more good efforts from Husch and the Anderson Valley.

2001 Finhorn Creek Gewürztraminer Okanagan Valley British Columbia. Go, Canada! A revelation at under $15, this could be my new house white for the summer. Light, fruity, refreshing, almost a hint of lemon zest, but still tropical. Some might consider it a pétillant (lightly sparkling wine), but I say it’s just a mouthful of flavor that will wash down fish nicely.

2001 Spy Valley Gewürztraminer Marlborough New Zealand. There are those rose petals! Litchi, tropical fruit, Turkish delight, it’s frighteningly good, again for spicy Thai fish or Indian dishes.

2000 Bargetto Gewürztraminer Monterey California. Sharp, tight, tingly, not overly fruity, but still has enough peach notes to flatter spicy foods and shellfish. Try it with kung pao delights of three.

2001 Chateau Ste. Michelle Gewurztraminer Washington. Washington loves these white varietals. If anything, they can come out a bit hot “” shallow and quick, with too much fruit. This is a recidivist, but it delivers on the finish. For me it’s good with pizza, fried oysters, or Cajun food.

Just a wee bit south of France’s northernmost wine region, Champagne, and 300 miles east of Paris lies Alsace. Protected on its west by the picturesque Vosges Mountains, which shield its vineyards from rain, Alsace is pure white-wine country.

Oh, some pinot noir is made there, but as my father might say, Alas, it isn’t all that good, I’m afraid (and Dad knows “” he’s been married most of his life to an exceptional Alsatian). Pinot noir is the only red varietal grown in the region. It’s used in the Crémant d’Alsace sparkling wines, which are made with the méthode champenoise technique perfected in nearby Champagne.

No, whites are what Alsace is all about. Gewürztraminer, riesling, pinots gris and blanc, plus some muscat, are the main characters. By law, chardonnay is allowed in the Crémants only; some writers suggest this rule gets violated, but in any event, it’s far from the focus. The emphasis on these few whites probably has as much to do with the region’s soil, limited rainfall, and very northern-ness as it does with its proximity to Germany, even though Alsace has been intermittently owned or at least occupied by Germany for the past few centuries. The Rhine separates the two countries, and its dramatically wide valley not only affects the grapes; visually, it’s just stunning. Like Germany’s quite-white-centric vineyards, Alsace’s are real fairy tales.

Strasbourg is Alsace’s capital, renowned as a most international and cosmopolitan city. In this culinary heaven, as is so often the case in Europe, you’ll find that the region’s cuisine marries perfectly with its wines. Cooks use lots of eggs, butter, and cheese. Escargots are a delicacy, drenched in garlic, parsley, and oil/butter, while a staple is the flammekueche, a cheese-onion tart. And Strasbourg may well be the world’s asparagus capital.

While most Alsatian whites are not sweet per se, there are some sweet ones, late-harvest efforts that give you a giddy rush when you drink them with a tarte Tatin for dessert. Many of the dry wines have residual sugars “” these are fairly fruity varietals. Riesling is apples, green plums, firm peaches; gewürztraminers are litchi nuts, vanilla, minerals, spices, and honeysuckle. I like gewürztraminers for breakfast, or after a long night of partying while greeting the dawn, and they work incredibly well with spicy foods or dishes with sour notes not created by citrus.

Gewürztraminers, for my money, are not made better anywhere in the world than in Alsace (in my next column, using Alsace as a benchmark, we’ll follow gewürztraminers around the world). The rieslings can also be epic, and then there are the exquisite pinot gris and crisp pinot blancs. Most will work exceptionally well with fish, especially spicy sushi (they like the soy sauce). Again, arguments could be made that with the likely exception of riesling (a doffing of the cap in respect to the monumental rieslings produced by its eastern neighbor and erstwhile occupier), the other three varietals reach their apogee in Alsace. Worth observing is the fact that, by and large, Alsatian wines aren’t blended (although some fine noble blends “” blends of a number of the white-wine grapes of Alsace “” are made: try Hugel’s); rather, they are expressions of one and only one grape.

A lot of the wines will age well, and the ’90s were very good to Alsace, producing a spate of good and great vintages. But, being whites, most drink best on their younger side. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Trimbach, and the Domaines Zind Humbrecht, Schlumberger, and Weinbach, four of the most deservedly legendary white-wine producers in the world. Almost anything they make, at a wide variety of price points, is worth trying, especially in a good or great year. The blend of minerals from the soil with the elegant fruits “” and the spicy notes resulting from the pervasive use of indigenous wild yeasts “” make these wines a delight.

So if you want alternatives to chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and the Rhône varietals, Alsace is a pretty safe bet: great, versatile wines (made by top winemakers who’ve had centuries to hone their craft) that tend to feature an incredible quality/price ratio, all topped off by rich history. If you go there and drink the wines, married so exquisitely with the local food, you’ll understand and appreciate how awesome and unforgettable Alsace can be.

1999 Kritt Gewürztraminer Les Charmes Marc Kreydenweiss Alsace. Stunning! Litchi, apple, apricot, vanilla, minerals. No need for food. Drink up.