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.]
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