I purchased this aged Alsatian Gewurztraminer recently for $22. A restaurant sold some of its wines to a local retailer who discounted them. I was promised proper storage. Since WA gave the 1989 vintage in Alsace a 93 rating and WS gave it a 96 rating I felt this was a good bet. I brought this to Otis' house on Saturday.

WS rated this wine 90 points. Josmeyer now uses biodynamic farming and hand picking with multiple passes. The Hengst vineyard is a grand cru status. The soil is a mixture of limestone, chalky marl and layers of sediment. This Grand Cru vineyard has 131 acres of vines.

This wine was 13.5% alcohol. There were no signs that the wine was cooked or corked. It had a greenish gold hue. As is common with wines from the Hengst, this 14 year old wine had an astonishing nose filled with floral and exotic spice aromas. Although I did not have a chance to try this wine in its youth, it has undoubtedly matured into an extremely rich full bodied wine. Unctuous with notes of carmel, toffee and clove. The finish was a little hot. Stylistically, I am not a fan of this ultra rich style of white wine. I find them to taste a little flat and lacking in freshness which I prefer. Fans of this style of ultraripe decadent wine will like this much more than I did and that is simply a matter of taste. 86 points.

VM

[This message was edited by Vino Me on Feb 09, 2004 at 12:25 PM.]

I have to add that the nose was absolutely wonderful ... well integrated rich aromas of toffee, flowers, honeysukle, nuts, butter, and spices with a very golden color. Unfortunately, the palate was a bit past it's prime in regards to the fruit. This had to be really delicious 4-5 years ago. 86/87

Awfully sorry to hear that, but then, of course, Gewürz is not Riesling. I bet the Riesling will perform better. Gewürz almost always fails to deliver in the mouth what the nose promises, except ...of course... when it's unashamedly sweet/-ish...

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Free Winona!

Gewurz is nototrious for having a palate that is no where near as powerful as the nose.

Cheers and Enjoy!!

Opened another bottle of this wine last night with similar notes. Fantastic nose but I was not impressed with the flavor profile.

VM

1989 Josmeyer Gewürztraminer Hengst - France, Alsace, Wintzenheim, Alsace Grand Cru AOC (3/26/2007)

I took a bottle of this to Zepplans house on Saturday for a 6 course dinner. WS gave this 90 points when it was released. I brought this to match with the sharp-cheddar cream of potato soup course but it ended up getting served with the first course of layered tomato/fresh basil/proscuitto/fresh mozzarella salad with a homemade honey-mustard vinaigrette. Very difficult pairing and it showed very poorly in my opinion. I would not have matched a Gewurz with this salad. It did not have the acidity to stand up to this food. It came off as flabby and out of place. 3rd time I have had this wine and its worst showing because of the pairing. Nice nose on this wine though. 85 points.

VM