Neglected Alsace
Over the last couple of nights I've been enjoying an Alsace white, and wondering why I don't drink more Alsace wines. This isn't the best wine in the world, by any measure, but it's really good. The exciting thing is that there are loads more better than this out there, I'm sure.Jean Becker Gewurztraminer 2006 Alsace, France
An organic wine, this is deliciously balanced and rounded. It shows grape, melon and lychee aromas with a smooth, textured palate. There's also a distinctive tangerine character here. It's off-dry but not at all cloying. A benchmark Gewurz with some spicy minerality on the finish. 90/100 (£10.99 Oddbins)
An organic wine, this is deliciously balanced and rounded. It shows grape, melon and lychee aromas with a smooth, textured palate. There's also a distinctive tangerine character here. It's off-dry but not at all cloying. A benchmark Gewurz with some spicy minerality on the finish. 90/100 (£10.99 Oddbins)
Labels: Alsace, Gewurztraminer
posted by Jamie @ 10:31 PM
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For me, Becker doesn't really get interesting until their vineyard designates, but then they can get really interesting in the right vintage. Occasionally, however, they come up with a good wine lower in the range, and it sounds like this is one (I haven't seen the '06 in our market yet, though here Becker tends to be a late-releaser, like their neighbors down the road in Ribeauvillé).
Even I drink less Alsace than I used to, though. Part of it's just the constant expansion of available choices from elsewhere. Part of it's the well-covered sugar issue. And part of it is that the everyday stuff has mostly risen over $20, the vineyard-designates (cru or not) into the high $30s and $40s, the top producers even higher than that, and that's a very different landscape than the one in which I first encountered the wines.
Thor, I know you've been a regular visitor to the region. Do you find there's just too much residual sugar in many wines?
Yes, it's a shame about the prices.
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