January 8th-German Gewürztraminer

This week, I drank a 2023 Weinhaus Schloss Koblenz St. Christopher Gewürztraminer from Rheinhessen. This wine is pale lemon in color. It has pronounced aromas of lychee, ginger, orange blossom, pear, white grapefruit and gardenia. This lighter bodied Gewürztraminer has a refreshing acidity to help balance the off dry sugar level. The alcohol content is on the lower end of the spectrum at 10.5% ABV. The tastes on the palate are easy to discern but slightly muted. The finish is medium length, with flavors that taper not too long after the wine leaves the palate. Most Gewürztraminer wines are intended to be immediate drinking and this bottle would fall into this category. It’s a great bottle to drink on a weeknight with a spicy meal! I paired it with Indian food but it would be great with many types of cuisine from the Middle East, Mediterranean and Asia that have spice and heat. 

Back in January of 2021, I discussed Alsatian Gewürztraminer but Gewürztraminer is grown in a few countries around the world, including Italy, the US, and Moldova, in addition to Germany and France. A majority of the plantings are in the Alsace region of eastern France. Germany has about 2000 acres of vines. A majority of wines produced in Germany are labeled under the ‘Qualitӓtswein’ designation. This is a classification that means the grapes used in making the wine were grown in one of 13 designated areas. These wines can vary widely in sugar content. The minimum alcohol content is 7%, in sweeter versions, but there is no maximum alcohol level. These wines can have sugar added also to help increase the alcohol or sugar levels in the final product. This is especially done during cooler growing seasons (vintages) to help balance high levels of acid. Before these wines can go to market, they are submitted for lab and tasting analysis. They are assigned a 10 to 12 digit number if they pass the analysis process. This number appears on the label (the one I drank has a number of 1 907 133 038 24) which codes for unique information to the wine.