Wine Reviews
A formidable, opulent off-dry style, this oozes with ripe peach, pineapple and honeyed apricot. This is beautifully propped up by a firm spine of acidity, with pink grapefruit pith adding pleasing bitterness to the lengthy finish.
Rich and decadent, with lychee, creamed honey and nectarine underpinned by green herbs, fresh chive and a savory beam of salty minerality and acidity. Reveals zesty blood orange and potpourri on the long finish.
The 2021 Gewurztraminer Hengst Grand Cru is from Oligocene limestone with some clay. This is made from the two oldest plots the domaine owns, planted between the two World Wars. Old Gewurztraminer genetics are less aromatically overt than current selections. Here, an earthy reduction comes first. As it dissipates, peach and pear shine through, just edged with a touch of rose petal. The palate is juicy, rounded and generous, almost dripping with peach juice and Mirabelle, but dry. The structure comes from texture rather than acid, which is balanced and fresh. Lovely citrus pith bitterness defines the palate and the dry finish.
This has almost exactly the balance that I remember from the great gewurz of the late 20th century. Fragrant turkish delight character, rich yet dry with a wonderful interplay of ripeness, a mere hint of grape sweetness and complex spiciness. What a beautiful finish!
From vines averaging 67 years of age in a medium to steep-sloping, south/southeast-facing cru on calcareous marl soils, the golden-colored 2018 Gewurztraminer Hengst opens with a deep and flinty, spicy and aromatic nose with lychee and blood orange zest and limon juice aromas. Rich and elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, dense and sustainable Gewurztraminer with candied bitters on the long and intense, clear and finely tannic finish. Sweet but not overly so (43.8 grams per liter of residual sugar), this is an excellent wine to pair with spicy dishes. The acidity here is remarkably vital and intermingled with the stimulating tannins. The alcohol is rather moderate for Gewurztraminer.
