2017 Biggio Hamina Gewürztraminer Biha Andreas Vineyard Willamette Valley

This is one Gewürztraminer that shows its true colors. Although Gewürz is generally handled like a white grape, when ripe its berry colors actually range from dusty rose to purplish-peach, and the wine itself often glints with pink.

Hamina’s Gewürz is salmon hued, an orangey rosé with flame yellow highlights. The aromas are honeyed, redolent of beeswax, honeysuckle, and almond, but also serious and evocative of earth and wet slate. The palate offers abundant fruit, mostly in the guise of fresh and dried apricots or quince paste, highlighted with a floral-herbal top note like chamomile. It also has a profound savoriness (the wine has thrown a little sediment). Texturally it feels like neither white wine nor red; its structure is more red-like, its fruits and peels more more white-like. Overall it’s an interesting, complex, delicious, and affordable wine. Truly outstanding.