It always feels strange to omit the umlaut in Gewurztraminer, but this is how they spell it in France, and the Humbrecht family, which has been making wine since 1620, is, at least geopolitically, at least currently, French.
Fruit for this bottling is grown in the Herrenweg Vineyard, which carpets a gravelly plain in Turckheim on which the winery is also sited. The grapes ferment with ambient yeasts and undergo spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wine ages eight months on lees prior to bottling.
The 2018 is youthful now. The color is solid gold and the wine is profusely floral, a decadent bouquet of paper whites and lily of the valley, lychee and daffodil. There’s a richer note, too, of rare and cured meats, and the wine blazes out with a volatile flash of savoriness.
It’s a wine for cheese. Try Munster (an Alsatian specialty) or any washed-rind cow’s milk cheeses. Also good with smoked meats and fish, cheese tart, sausages, or lightly spiced curries and pilafs, especially those spiked with ginger.
2018 Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Turckheim
13% abv | $25 (sample); Imported by Kobrand
