October Wine Club - Gewürztraminer

For our October Wine Club meeting we looked at Gewürztraminer from Alsace. The take home bottle was a 2008 Willy Gisselbrecht Gewürztraminer and it was done in an off-dry style. The comparison bottle was a René Muré and it was done in a dry style.

Here is the LCBO information for both wines -


WILLY GISSELBRECHT TRADITION GEWURZTRAMINER 2008

VINTAGES 928390
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 18.95
Wine, White Wine
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : MD
Made in: Alsace, France
By: Willy Gisselbrecht & Fils
Release Date: Jul 23, 2011

Tasting Note - Pleasant notes of peach, ginger and lychee greet the nose here. A touch off-dry, well balanced and lovely with citrus, peach and spice tones in the mouth. Ideal for spicy Indian curry dishes featuring chicken or lamb. (VINTAGES panel, Sept. 2010)

RENÉ MURÉ SIGNATURE GEWURZTRAMINER 2009

VINTAGES 61218
750 mL gift
Price: $ 17.95
Wine, White Wine
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : D
Made in: Alsace, France
By: A. & O. Mure
Release Date: Aug 20, 2011

Description - The Muré family have been growing grapes in Alsace since 1648. Their wines always express the classic characteristics of each grape variety they use. This Gewurztraminer is sourced from 29-year-old vines and displays aromas of intense lychee and rose petals. It's dry, full bodied and spicy. It will delight as an aperitif or pair it with exotic foods like lamb curry.

Gewürztraminer is a variety of grape that I’m not a huge fan of as the wonderful lychee and floral nose always reminds me of dessert wines and then when you taste a dry wine with a slight bitterness to it, I find that is a shock as it wasn’t what I was expecting. That said we have never done Gewürztraminer on its own for Wine Club so I felt it was time.

The Willy Gisselbrecht Gewürztraminer I had tried before a few weeks ago at the dinner Kim hosted - http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2011/10/saturday-night-chez-kimmie.html so I won’t bother reviewing it again here in much detail and will focus on the René Muré instead.

The nose on the René Muré was stronger than the Willy Gisselbrecht and had nice aromas of lime, lychee, rose and Mandarin orange. Tasting this wine you’ll notice a dry wine with grapefruit and spice flavours. I like the nose more on this wine but thought the flavours on the Willy Gisselbrecht were nicer.

Tracey, a Wine Club member, bought in spicy hummus, spicy Guacamole dip and tortillas to go with the wines. Both wines were a good pairing for the wines but I enjoyed the Willy Gisselbrecht more.

While I’m not a huge fan of Gewürztraminer, I did enjoy both of these ones and I will be forever grateful to the grape for being one of the only wines that pairs with Avocado.

Thanks to Tracey for the yummy food and I’m already looking forward to next month’s meeting.

Cheers!

Mark