Gaga over GEWÜRZ

Despite its Deutsche roots, our judges agree this spicy, lychee, ginger-laden lovely has found a happy home in New Zealand

One thing became blindingly obvious when our winning wines were announced, and that is our little land of the long white cloud can produce great gewürztraminer pretty much everywhere. With wines hailing from Auckland, Gisborne, Marlborough, Nelson and North Canterbury in our Top 12 and some solid, High Bronze awarded examples from Hawke’s Bay and Central Otago, we can safely claim to be an equal opportunities piece of gewürz-friendly ground here in Godzone.

There are clear aristocrats in the field, however. When companies such as Lawson’s Dry Hills and Pegasus Bay succeed in placing not one but two separate wines each in our Top 12, that’s a clear flag that they’re seriously flash at guiding great gewürztraminer into the bottle at multiple price points. What’s the secret to their success? For Marcus Wright, longtime winemaker at Lawson’s Dry Hills, it’s all about the vineyard. “It’s very cliched, but it’s the single most important factor,” he says. Their gewürztraminer comes from their Home block around the winery and Peter and Julie Woodward’s block a few hundred metres down the road.

“Both have heavy clay soils which provide lovely weight and mouthfeel without the need for loads of residual sugar to fill the mid-palate. Our viticulturist Mark Ludemann seems to be able to get the most out of any block he works with, and the quality of fruit off these blocks has steadily increased over the past decade.”

WOW FACTOR

In terms of winemaking, Marcus is all about making an impact rather than chasing pure delicate fruit expression.

“We add complexity through fermenting the pressings with wild yeast in barrel and blending this portion of wine back before bottling. The Pioneer, first made in 2009, is all wild in barrel and is quite different to any other local example – it’s rich, round and has amazing depth and mouthfeel. Both our wines age really well despite breaking the traditional rules around acidity and ph (both are low acid and high ph) and our Estate Gewürztraminer from 2007 is just starting to peak!”

Mat Donaldson of Pegasus Bay explains gewürztraminer is relatively new to their stable, having released their first in 2007. “It’s totally different to all the other varieties we do,” he says. “We were inspired by Cloudy Bay’s gewürz, and when James Healy was still there, he gave us his recipe and we’ve been following it ever since. Our secret is getting the fruit really ripe and bringing in some botrytis for extra richness. That results in higher alcohol, which is great because gewürztraminer is so low in acidity, the alcohol actually gives it the prickle and texture it needs. We also use the pressings (which we don’t do for any other varieties), because they inject structure – plus we do a full solids fermentation in old oak puncheons and that gives it a bit of funk and an extra dimension. You have to go with the flow with gewürz and we’ll change each style according to what each vintage gives us.”

Gewürztraminer is a style so many of us say we love, and yet New Zealanders aren’t buying enough of it, which means it is a variety on the decline. Perhaps it’s because it’s hard to pronounce (gah-wertz-trah-meener)? Or we tend to go for safe, dependable options like sauvignon or chardonnay when we’re at the supermarket – either way, we go gaga over gewürztraminer here at Dish and implore you to sip your way through the most delicious dozen in the land…

“You have to go with the flow; we’ll change each style according to what each vintage gives us”