No Demand for Gewurztraminers

Filed in archive Australian Wines on March 2, 2007

I'm going to admit that I don't think I've ever tried gewurztraminer. I've read a lot about it, especially when suggesting wines to drink with unusual food combinations, such as those in Asian cooking, but so far, I can't say that I've seen this around here in my own backyard. One reason, according to this article, is because there just isn't as much demand for it as compared to something like a riesling.

From A striking splash of traminer:

THOSE WHO say too much gewurztraminer (aka traminer) is too much of a good thing are probably right. It's one of the most instantly recognisable of wines and a joy to drink in small doses.
But it's hard to find the good ones because Australia grows so little of it about 6000 tonnes annually compared with riesling's 30,000 and chardonnay's 250,000. And most of what we do make goes to cheaper, large-volume blends.

Those deliciously grapey, sweetish blends usually combined with riesling have provided an entry point into wine drinking for millions of Australians over the past 40 years, starting in the 1960s with Penfolds Bin 202 Traminer Riesling and continuing today with the likes of Rosemount Estate, McGuigan and Hardy's RR.

A little splash of traminer adds a lot to a wine. Its pink berries deliver heady lychee-like aromas, with matching opulence on the palate, and often, especially when grown in warm climates, a viscous to oily texture striking characteristics but also ones that tend to limit our intake.

Although the world's largest plantings today are in Alsace, France, Jancis Robinson writes that it was "first mentioned as growing in the village of Tramin, or Termeno, in the higher reaches of the Etsch Valley in what is now the Italian Tyrol, around the year 1000".

Alsace remains, too, the model for top-end New World producers, including those in Australia and New Zealand. Most of the production is of dry versions and these can be sublime but in great years, such as 1976, exceptionally long-lived sweeter versions emerge.

In Australia, the lack of demand for top-end gewurztraminers tends to limit production, despite the existence of some wonderful old vineyards.

But the sheer passion of some winemakers keeps the flame burning.