December 9, 2018 - Salil, Paul, and Mark at my new house: A tremendous wine that performed like the last bottle promised but fell short of. This bottle had mild sweetness combined with white fruits, especially apricot and a pleasantly long finish.
December 8, 2018 - My last bottle of this was a disappointment, but this was spectacular. It takes some time to fully open out - there's a bit of odd funk on the nose at first, but with air it clears and the classic Gewurz aromas build; rosewater and other bright floral scents, lychee, apricots, and other ripe fruit augmented by mature smokiness and a faint burnished/earthy edge. The palate is fantastic - powerful with tremendous intensity, yet only moderately sweet and surprisingly light on its feet with much more acidity than I typically expect from Gewurztraminer. Each sip lingers for minutes, and this is really a stunning wine.
November 17, 2018 - Salil and I celebrate: Sadly this wine, which had an interesting and even promising underpinning, was somewhat oxidized and not what it could have been.
November 16, 2018 - Bummer - had high expectations here, but something seemed off. Slightly oxidative flavours and feeling rather flat on the palate, rather than the ultra-fragrant, vibrant wine I would have expected (especially after an astounding bottle of the '89 Hengst VT a few weeks ago).
December 15, 2016 - Red wax capsule with partially eroded magnum cork. Grown in the oolytic lymestone of this vineyard in the Haut-Rhin. $110/1500 ml.
Coravin old-cork sample 12 pabv; 31 percent Brix; 9.3 residual. Kermit Lynch. Gueberschwihr Goldert, AOC Grand Cru Gewurztraminer, Vendange Tardive. This wine is a deep brown-green with a thick texture, but with richness and mouth-feel Punchy and energetic; with tobacco, plum and orange, with full texture and acidity to match; very reluctant weepings. Beeswax and redcurrant promenant; a Beerenauslese-level texture and sweetness. As it airs, a full whiff of grapefruit syrup comes into the nose. Given that we have more than a full bottle left, chances good for a re-tasting . Plenty of white-wine tannin will hold up the structure. 95/100--2016-2021. However, much depends on storage conditions.
April 11, 2015 - Dinner at Bida Manda. Every bit as good as the bottle of this we had at this restaurant about a month ago. Hauntingly beautiful in its expression of the Goldert terroir. At peak? Yes but still another decade of excellent drinking ahead. It will be interesting to see if any more Goldert florality is able to come out. 50+14+14+9.5+9.5=97
March 14, 2015 - Dinner at Bida Manda, Raleigh, NC with Alan & Lehna. Dark amber in color, age has treated this wine extremely well. Truly the essence of the Goldert terroir with a heavily perfumed floral nose and palate that reminded me of the '71 ZH Goldert Muscat we had in June, 2004 more than any other bottle from Goldert I've had since. Lightly sweet and still carrying good acidity. Not much of the spice side of Gewurz but the floral aspects along with acacia honey made for a tremendous wine that was the perfect match with every dish we ordered from this wonderful Laotian restaurant. 50+15+14+9+9.5=97.5
August 8, 2010 - Grand Blanc at Aquarelle French Restaurant (Austin, Texas): Overall the favorite in this flight of eight wines, the Goldert VT was very well balanced and had a cornucopia of flavor. With a jasmine and green tea nose and character, the wine was golden and spicy, and had notes from tasters of dried apricots, home-canned spiced peaches, honey, lychee, Turkish figs, brown sugar, cinnamon toast, honeycomb, papaya, lemon-orange, “warm spice peach and apple pie” (that’s right, we are from Texas). And it had a fine, dry acid finish. Delicious.
March 7, 2010 - Pure amber, pure apricot, pure.
October 16, 2009 - 1989 revisited offline (Hambleton Hall, Rutland): A big, very ripe nose. The trademark (for me) Zind Humbrecht power above all else. It's a completely full on Gewurz, and is really very good, but is a bit hard work on its own, and marred on the finish a touch of alcoholic burn.
This really, really needs food to make it drinkable with pleasure: it was by far the best match with a foie gras parfait and - later in the meal - with some Lincolnshire Poacher cheese.