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Gewurztraminer is astonishingly different from almost all other white grapes and is so intense in flavour that it turns many people off. Although many are technically dry, they taste so rich and full that they seem pretty sweet. The trend has recently been to make the wines sweeter and so you may inadvertently find yourself drinking something unsuitable with your main course. The grape is grown all over the world, but within Alsace it has an intensity that is fails to muster elsewhere. The aroma is alikened to lychees, Nivea, roses or Camay soap. The taste is usually quite sweet and highly perfumed, which makes it ideal for Chinese food or anything else with a sweet, rich sauce.
Pinot Gris, within Alsace, makes a similarly spicy and interesting, full-bodied wine but without the intense perfume of Gewurztraminer. Bizarrely, Pinot Gris is the same grape as Pinot Grigio, which makes the utter rubbish that people who clearly don’t really like wine seem to think they enjoy. Along the same lines, Chenin Blanc can make such beautiful wines as Vouvray, Savennières and Coteaux du Layon within the Loire and in South Africa can make neutral, spineless dishwater. France really knows how to get the best from these grapes.
In Alsace, wines from superior plots of land are known as Grands Crus. We had two Grand Cru wines and one of them was astonishingly good and blatantly in another class from the others. It was also, sadly, £16.99, which is a tenner more than most of the others.
Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Herrenweg de Turckheim 2000 is £16.99 in Tesco’s Fine Wine section. It was a deep, deep golden, almost like golden syrup and was fabulously perfumed, reminding me of dried apricots. It tasted of apricot kernels and was very sweet and luscious. Liz fancied it with fois gras and we thought it would only be suitable either as a pudding wine or as an aperitif because the taste was so intense and mouth-stunning that any savoury food wouldn’t stand a chance.
Marks & Spencer’s Cuvee Particulière 2005 comes from the Cave de Turckheim and came a creditable second at £6.99. It was lightly perfumed, but fairly typical, and reminded me of gardenia. It tasted quite light and fresh and not too heavy and oily. The taste reminded Nikki of roses.
Philippe Zinck, Eichberg Grand Cru 2004, which is £9.99 from Majestic, smelt of Nivea and lychees. The smell reminded Lorraine of hand cream. It had more weight and was prettily perfumed, with a grapefruit pith finish.
Radcliffe’s 2004 wine, also from the Cave de Turckheim is £9.99 or £6.66 if you buy 3 for 2. Had it been in a blind tasting, I would have guessed it to be a Pinot Gris as although it was spicy, it was less obviously scented. The taste was typical and nicely acidic.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference was light on flavour and had little varietal aroma. Tesco’s Finest smelt of tinned pears but did have a Camay and barley sugar taste, which was fairly pleasant. Morrisons, which is made by Preiss-Zimmer smelt of sulphur and had little varietal flavour but was fine.