Wine Reviews

Zesty, bright and intensely minerally, this carries its weight with ease, showing lime zest acidity that drives lychee, green plum and mandarin orange flavors. This has a lightness to it, with chalky minerality powering the creamy yet focused palate through the sneaky long finish

The golden-colored 2020 Gewurztraminer Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Urbain opens with ripe pear, dark chocolate, coriander and flinty aromas. On the palate, this is a rich, fresh, lively, piquant and grapefruit-bitter Gewürztraminer with fine tannins and long salinity. The finish is very long and still somewhat bitter, but this is a great, powerful and age-worthy Gewürz.

Apple juice and white pepper offer an unexpected complement to more typical lychee aromas. While sweet and pear-like upfront, this wine has more savory notes than expected, with spring onion, Alpine cheese and a hint of petrol. The body is light, the acidity exactly as cleansing as it should be. It all hangs together in a light, easy-drinking amalgam. A little time in the cellar would probably enhance this wine’s complexity.

Slight flickers of peach appear on the nose of the 2021 Gewurztraminer Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Urbain Grand Cru and almost have a creamy aspect, with tingling grapefruit spice and honeysuckle overtones. It is seductive because nothing is heady, beckoning and beguiling simultaneously. The palate is rich, almost creamy and concentrated, yet gentle. The acidity is buffered, juicy and lemony but tingles with ginger spiciness. This is Gewurztraminer, but not as you know it. Totally different, but boy, oh boy. What an experience. Very long.

A unique wine that breaks the gewurz mold! This is how I imagine the great wines of the Middle Ages tasting, although they would never have been bottled this young and fresh. Deep, spicy and ever-so slightly exotic nose with plenty of smoky complexity.