Wine Review - 2008 Valckenberg Gewurztraminer: Peachy Keen!

Label Slightly Different

This wine was a bit of an unknown but one we have wanted to try for a while.  Let's rephrase that....we have wanted to try a Gewurztraminer for a while and this one from P.J. Valckenberg just happened to fit the bill at $18.50 locally.

As far as Gewurztraminer goes, the wine is in the same ballpark as Riesling and they do have one thing in common which is residual sugar, but the Gewurz tends to be a floral with notes of spice and this one was no different.  The floral though was of a Peach orchard.  This wine was peachy in every sense.  It really smelled like a someone poured booze on a can of peaches.  This is not a bad thing by any means but the monerality and crisp acidity in a lot of German Riesling is replaced by mild tartness and what was described as cloves to us, really smells like Chinese Five Spice (so that kind of makes sense).

In the glass it is a little more golden than we expected but it looks really nice.  Overall, a great drinking wine which went well with the Chicken that we had with it.  The German wine representing cool climate winemaking really is a more approachable set of wines than many other areas of the world.  The wines are mild and flavourful with a lot of good stuff going on and this one is no different.  We are attempting to spend more time on these types of wine (not just German) so we can become more familiar with these regions and what they bring to the table.  So, cheers to Valckenberg for providing a very nice example of German wine.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Golden colour in the glass with long legs for 10.5% alcohol.  Almost thick honey like.	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Peaches dominate the nose with a slight Chinese 5 Spice undertone.  Sweet but not overly so.	4.25
Taste (0-10)	Peaches again appear though there is a bit of crisp acidity it still retains the feel of tropical flavoured peaches.  Nice and yet another reason to look forward to patio wine.	8.25
	Total:	16.5 / 20  (82.5%)

Yes, we are looking forward to wines like this on a warm summer evening.  So close yet so far.  This is a nice Gewurz and if you are even remotely a fan of German wine this one will not steer you wrong.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon