Gewürztraminer is one of my favorite white grape.  I love the spicy element and the honey like aroma that comes from this wine.  I also love it when it is in a desert wine.  It is a very difficult wine to grow and not many vineyards on Long Island grow this grape.  But I have found one that does and does it well.

A little history and background of this wine.  On the vine it is a rose colored to almost a red colored grape.  It has a tendency to look like a “red” grape on the vine, put produces a wonderful straw colored wine.  It tends to have a bit more natural sugar than most grapes.  But it can also be a dry type that will show some wonderful tropical fruit flavors.  It is a very aromatic wine, and at times it has shown some bubbles in the glass.

This Gewürztraminer is from Martha Clara in Riverhead, NY.  I have not been to Martha Clara in quite some time, but after tasting this, they are on my list of places to go and taste soon.  This bottle was given to be as a gift.  It does sell on line for $18.99, but I have seen it for less in some wine shops.

On the nose I was getting lychee.  This is very common with Gewürztraminer.  A reason why this wine goes great with Asian dishes.  There were elements of spice and dried candied fruit. On the cold side, there were element of tropical fruit, but as it was coming up to room temperature, it was picking up some apricot and peach with a hint of rose and a creamy vanilla.

The taste was more of the same. I was picking up some pear and apricot with a hint of apple.  The colder this wine was the more acidity there was.  I prefer this wine just off chill.

This wine is now one of my favorites on Long Island.  I am very happy to see Gewürztraminer showing up in a dinner wine instead of a desert wine.  Not that I don’t like gewürztraminer as a desert wine, but because of the high sugar levels in the grape naturally, it makes an easy wine to turn it in to a desert wine.

The next time I am out east, I want to stop in Martha Clara and enjoy some wine like this one.  If you see it in your local shop, due pick it up.  If you have never had a gewürztraminer, then go out and start with this one.  The price is right and the taste is right.

I was not disappointed, and you should not be either.