Stephan Reinhardt introduces a tasting of Gewurztraminer wines from eight grands crus in a broad range of styles and vintages, shared with Andrew Jefford and Anthony Rose, where differences in the perceptions and preferences of the tasters made any conclusions hard to draw but where the distinctive personality and thrilling quality of the top wines still shone through.
This is an extract from an article first published in WFW89. For full tasting notes and scores for all 36 wines tasted by the panel, subscribe to The World of Fine Wine.
Tasting among like-minded people is something we enjoy doing with Gewurztraminer. But drinking it? Almost certainly not with friends who are less wine-crazy than we are and who are more likely to be happy guests with a Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc than with an extremely fragrant, floral, and fruit-intensive Gewurz, which is thought to be an aromatic mutation of Savagnin Rose. And hasn’t it long since gone out of fashion anyway, with its bombastic opulence and unabashed aromas of roses, oranges, litchees, and pepper?
In most European countries, first the interest of wine lovers wanes, then the vineyard area. On the other hand, even today, great Gewurztraminers from Alsace can impress like very few other white wines. Great Gewurztraminers are not, however, a matter of luck—they are simply very rare.
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So, it cannot be down to the grape variety, although genetics and the rootstock are also important for Gewurztraminer. So, too, of course, are the site and the way the vines are cultivated, as well as the yields and the condition in which the grapes are harvested and processed. The poor current image of Gewurztraminer is probably based less on wines from grand cru sites and more on those from vineyards that were planted when Alsace was still the center of the white-wine world: easy-to-cultivate flat sites in the Rhine valley that produce maximum yields and plenty of sugar. As is well known, it is the must weights that determine the price category in which the finished wine can be offered—or rather, could be offered. It is not only Vendanges Tardives that have been selling much more strongly than 50 years ago, but also Gewurztraminers from grand cru vineyards. Even so, there can be a price difference of up to €60 from one cru to another, or even from one producer to another within the same cru.
We haven’t touched yet on style and taste. When the virtues of a dry (sec) Gewurztraminer with fresh acidity are impressed on us, we might well wonder why anyone who wants to produce a crisp, light white wine would ever grow Gewurztraminer. It is the exact opposite: opulent, often oily, with a lot of body and, in the best cases, a lot of substance and length, too. After all, the variety ripens rather late, so late that the acidity has already slipped away. More important than this, however, are the structure-giving phenols in thick-skinned Gewurztraminer berries. Full phenolic ripeness is therefore essential and can usually only be achieved with low yields and in excellent sites. Low-yielding vines with deep roots are therefore at an advantage, especially in challenging vintages such as 2021 (lots of rain and peronospera) or 2022 (drought and heat). The variety is rarely found in the middle of the slope rather than at the bottom, where the soil is deeper and water more readily available. Young, very vigorous vines, in particular, must be restrained. High must weights at harvest easily lead to heavy, bitter wines, especially if they are fermented to dryness. But if, in addition to acidity, complexity and substance are also lacking, a Gewurztraminer can quickly seem clumsy or flat, even if it is rich in sugar.
A balanced, warm, and dry season toward harvest time produces the most impressive Gewurztraminers. The most promising wines in our tasting are neither dry nor very sweet, but have been bottled in a medium-dry, moelleux style. Here, with appropriate cultivation, the sweetness can be balanced or put under tension by body, intensity and complexity, as well as salty-savory acidity and tannin structure. But even in this category, Gewurztraminer can be lacking in energy and tension. It doesn’t even need to be very mature; a rather weak vintage such as 2021 is enough to tire it.
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For this tasting, we sampled Gewurztraminers from eight, predominantly calcareous, Alsace Grand Cru sites, mainly from Zinnkoepflé, Hengst, Furstentum, Sporen, and Pfersigberg. Because the styles and vintages (most between 2019 and 2023), as well as the perceptions and ratings of the three tasters, were quite heterogeneous, it is impossible to draw any conclusions or even to make generalizations.
The Gewurztraminers from Furstentum achieved our highest average rating (92.3), ahead of Sporen and Mambourg, which were both on a par (91.7) and just ahead of Kirchberg de Barr (91.4). Hengst, rather surprisingly given its reputation, came bottom (87.6).
The top five: The best of Alsace Gewurztraminer
Gruss Alsace Grand Cru Vorbourg Gewurztraminer 2011 (13.5% ABV) | 94
AJ | A beautiful color: glowing gold shot through with green. No trace of fatigue, visually speaking. This is evolved in scent but not tired in scent: mushrooms, nuts, and medlars rather than peach and rose. Ample attractive, mature-Gewurztraminer appeal. Rich, silky, and velvety. The analogies, notes, and allusions are those autumnal ones the nose suggested, with added umami and Virginia tobacco. The wine is properly languid and rich, has a little tannin, has some inner fire to carry it, and has admirable creamy fullness. Impressive Gewurz, though in no way exaggerated or baroque; wonderful sipping. Of our Vorbourg trio, we have to hope that this is the most typical. 2025–28. | 92
SR | An intense yellow in color, this immediately demonstrates that Gewurz ages very slowly. If we didn’t know the vintage, nobody would have guessed this wine is 14 years old. Undoubtedly this wine shows enormous depth, intensity, richness, and complexity on the fascinating nose, revealing pastry and shortbread notes as well as ginger. On the palate, this is a round, smooth Gewurz, with a ripe and elegant acidity, well-integrated tannins, and a very long, powerful finish that makes me long for a mature Munster. Rich but also crystalline, saline, ageless. Impressive. 2025–55. | 95
AR | With its golden hue, this looks distinctly evolved in the glass, but when you smell it, the most surprising aspect is a relative freshness for a wine well over a decade old; and that combines beautifully with a secondary bouquet of classic pot pourri notes, spices, and honey; when you taste, there’s a lovely honeyed ripeness and a degree of richness adding a caressing textural note, the combination of factors making this wine, almost savory at the finish: so delightful. 2025–29. | 95
Domaine Hugel Grand Cru Sporen Gewurztraminer 2015 (13% ABV) | 94
AJ | Bright gold. Wonderful wine and so Sporen: the subtlest yet the most compelling site for Gewurz. This is a giant cashmere blanket of subtle, understated delights: cream, mushroom, roast white meats, roast chicken jus, just lifted with no-perfume talc and classy lanolin. There are of course flowers and summer fruits, but I have emphasized all these other notes since these are the Sporen Difference. It’s a special place and this is a great, subtle wine. Super-satisfying on the palate, too: long, creamy, comforting, lush, beguiling, rich, lavish, and indulgent. Very cashmere in textural terms, too. You see fruit (peach, quince) and white chocolate on the palate to a slightly greater extent than on the aromas, but those lovely, velvety, mushroom-and-meaty things are there beneath. Grand wine from this grand site. 2025–32. | 95
AR | Although 10 years old, this looks youthful; it smells young and relatively fresh and fragrant, too; on tasting, it’s clear that the fruit concentration and richness is an important building block in the structure of a super-fragrant wine whose trajectory is just starting to peak but not turn, thanks to excellent acidity and, dare one suggest, the minerality coming from this site. 2025–30. | 93
Domaine Meyer-Fonné Alsace Grand Cru Furstentum Gewurztraminer 2017 (13.5% ABV; organic) | 94
AJ | Mid-gold. Well-preserved: the age has brought harmony, but the wine is still lively and engaging, with an almost buttery richness underneath the notes of rose and pear, peach and quince (the subtlest of fruits—nothing at all vulgar here). A rich, sweet, unctuous, and baroque wine of huge charm and appeal. It is soft, so those who want “focus” and “precision” and flavors that are “tightly wound” should clear off elsewhere. This is a slow swim through the tropical lagoon of summer fruits, honey, flowers (remembered), mushroom, and sandalwood. A treat—though it does run a little on its sugars and doesn’t have the concentration of the very best. Obviously, the factors of balance here are sugar, perfume, tannin, and finishing bitterness, and it is very well-balanced, given that plesiosaur-like style. I just love this wine. 2025–32. | 94
SR | This is deep, pure, and fresh on the intense nose, which is savory and salty and much fresher than some other Furstentums, even if olderr. On the palate, this is a crystalline, saline, and stimulating Gewurz, with remarkable balance. 2025–50. | 93
AR | Mid-gold and evidently evolved, but nicely so, this combines a nice freshness on the one hand, with aromatic notes of evolution on the other, in a classic, very floral fragrance that’s really inviting; on tasting, this is quite beguiling, a lovely, smooth richness coating the palate in a finely balanced, gracefully aging wine that’s reached its peak but will stay there a few years yet, thanks to an almost invisible elegance of structure. 2025–31. | 95
Domaine Weinbach Alsace Grand Cru Mambourg Gewurztraminer 2019 (13.5% ABV) | 94
AJ | Bright, full gold. Another super-attractive Mambourg aroma of orange citrus, Cox’s Orange Pippin, petitgrain, rose, carnation, poppyseed. Very classy. Mambourg and aromatic finesse seem synonymous on the basis of our small sample. Deft and finely constructed, with all of the lacemaker’s aromatic finesse that the aromatic profile sketched out. There are generous sugars, indeed almost over-generous, but give the wine time to settle and all that aromatic finesse swings into play. This is a wine with very tender fruits; the site can easily catch the sun; but the finesse and intricacy are there, engraved in the fruit, nonetheless. Another outstanding wine from this site. 2025–34. | 95
SR | Bright yet intense in color, this is a deep, savory, and aromatic Furstentum, with a long, intense, piquant, and savory finish. 2026–50. | 94
AR | Pale yellow-gold; super-aromatic, with plenty of floral and honeyed notes evolving nicely and maintaining impressive freshness; plenty of textured richness, suffused with good honey and rose flavors and all buoyed by juicy freshness; a balanced and very likeable wine. 2025–30. | 92
Domaine Bernhard Alsace Grand Cru Mambourg Gewurztraminer Demi-Sec 2021 (13.5% ABV; organic) | 93
AJ | Bright gold. Fresh, lively, new-laid; not overtly allusive, but there is a wealth of finely meshed aromatic intrigue: honeysuckle, tangerine, blonde tobacco, spring leaves, and plant sap. Very complete and rewarding aromas if relatively shy. Give it time. Deep, vibrant, exciting, and full of all the aromatic resource that was sketched out on the aromas. This doesn’t have the gutsy weight and sensual drench of some of the Furstentums; it’s a little lighter, but ricochets with aroma and enchantment. There is acidity here, too, full of aromatics in itself; little tannin by contrast, and none of the white chocolate or sandalwood notes we found elsewhere. Super balance and a long life ahead. 2025–32. | 95
SR | This is concentrated and spicy on the fresh, pure nose. Rich and intense as well as savory on the palate, this is a rich yet elegant and stimulating Gewurz with class and style. 2025–41. | 93
AR | Pale yellow-gold; exotic notes of honeydew melon and guava in the aromas, and on tasting, there’s a nice level of fruit ripeness, whose honeyed edge is balanced by just a hint of spritz from lees and a good level of acidity for balance; and while “demi-sec,” it’s richer than off-dry. 2025–33. | 90
