Winemaker Notes
The nose is initially closed with orange marmalade, jackfruit and candied apricots.
Then the spices, like cumin and fenugreek, become more visible. Grilled pineapple, nashi pear and honey rate come forward with time. The palate, too, is slow to reveal itself. It is delicate and deep, with a persistent texture throughout. Slightly drier than previous years, which exposes the mid palate more, the real nature of the wine becomes evident after several approaches: calm, juicy and delicious, with a strong personality.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is first-class gewurz with oily, clove, spice and dried-orange aromas. Full-bodied and relatively dense with a long aftertaste of pie crust and spice. Toffee, too. Lightly sweet.
Gewürztraminer, an expressive and aromatically distinctive white grape variety, is considered a noble variety in the Alsace region of France, and produces wonderful wines in the mountainous Alto Adige region of NE Italy. Generally this grape grows well in cooler regions and its natural intensity makes it a great ally for flavorful cuisine such as Indian, Middle Eastern or Moroccan. Somm Secret—Because of a charming perfume and tendency towards slight sweetness, Gewürztraminer makes for an excellent gateway wine for those who love sweet wines but want to venture into the realm of drier whites.
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.