Two Gewürztraminers in two days, oh the horror! Or maybe not! I figured since yesterdays wine was fresh in my mind it would be good to compare a similarly priced one from the same vintage year. The Niagara Peninsula has similar climatic conditions to the Alsace region so it is not overly surprising to find plenty of cool climate whites available from vintners from the region. Peller Estates remains one of the larger winemakers from Niagara so in many ways it is not far off comparing their 17$ bottle with Sparr’s $16 bottle. For this wine the winemaker fermented in stainless steel using ‘premium’ free run juice. Since Peller does not make a top range Andrew Peller one must assume that what you are getting in this wine is the best that Peller grows/buys in terms of Gewürztraminer grapes. With a quick stop to the fermentation process the crafter gives it an off-dry style sweetness in the 1 range. Like a great many vineyards around the world, this wine went from steel to glass. With all the technical jargon out of the way, on to the tasting!
The pale straw like colour (lighter then lemons) led to a citrusy nose on the first sniff. Swirling it around and giving it another go, you can start to pick out green apple and peach. The first sip introduces a solid fruit forward wine with good acidity. Peach gives way to pear while the green apple remains. Hints of pineapple and banana come forward the longer it lingers and the finish while soft at first is nice and compliments the balanced acidity. I was pleasantly surprised as I honestly was not expecting much. A side by side with Pierre Sparr would actually end up in the Niagara beating the Alsace with better balance and fruit while not disappearing as it warmed up.
The CWG Subjective Rating is 86 out of 100.
Mrs CWG says
Enjoyable, but I’d stick to my off-dry Rieslings before re-buying the past two Gewürztraminers
