2008 Gewürtztraminer - impression by PJ - February 2009

"Milton is the best wine in Tasmania, end of story!" - Danny (fisherman, surfer and Mary's Husband)

Well in the face of such a massive recommendation - Danny wouldn't dare say anything without Mary's stamp of approval -  I had no choice, I dropped everything and went looking for someone to whom I could say "a bottle of your finest Milton my good sir!".  This was a complete waste of time of course since there is no bottle shop or restaurant in my street (we blame the local council! - Ed) but then I realised that Milton is on the east coast of Tassie and I, along with the Winepunters crew, was about to embark on an east coast trip anyway. 

I had a great time at Milton and met one of nature's true gentlemen, Michael Dunbabbin, and you will hear more about him in the near future.  All the Milton wines are excellent by the way but since I have been reading a bit about the Gewürtztraminer variety I decided it was the one to select for the patented Winepunters impression. 

For the purposes of this impression I wanted to match the Gewürtztraminer with Peking duck.  This was harder than you would expect.  Even though I live only 40km outside our state capital there is no Chinese restaurant nearby.  This is unusual since Australia has many many wonderful Chinese restaurants so thankfully few people have to suffer as I do.  So in order for me to be able to write this impression my partner had to make Peking duck from scratch (she is a kitchen goddess - Ed).

 

Now those of you who have tasted the delight of a Peking duck and its accompanying sauce will know it is a wonderful collection of quite strong flavours. Therefore any wine you choose has to be able to compete.  To really roadtest this wine I followed the duck up with a dessert of homemade 'breakfast bar' (oats, dried fruit and dates). 

So having set the scene lets get on with the impression.

What does the winemaker say?

As always I head to the back label for the official view on the wine. The Gewürtztraminer comes from 'hand tended' grapes grown in the Cranbrook Vineyard. "It is a special wine with hints of lychees and turkish delight flavours and a spicy aromatic finish".  It is also recommended that the wine be served chilled.

What do we say?

  I recently saw an article which stated that 64% of Australians have no idea how fresh lychees smell, look or taste and I have to confess I am in that group.  So the 'hints of lychees' was lost on me. However, being a major fan of turkish delight I agree the the Gewürtztraminer delivers that in spades.

Overall I thought this wine was like drinking a big soft vanilla cordial and I mean that in a good way. The wine had a nice controlled sweet highlight with a clean finish.  It also had just the right amount of acid to give it structure and allow it to shine against the duck and homemade breakfast bars (that's no mean feat! - Ed).

To sum up lets answer the Punter questions:

Should you buy this wine?

You pay for what you get and I think you get a bargain in this wine.  There is a lot of taste for the money and it is a wine that can be drunk either on its own or with food. The more situations in which you can drink a wine the better as far as I am concerned

What will it taste like in a real situation?

This wine handled both the intense savoury / spicy flavours of a Peking duck as well as complimenting the dried fruit flavours of our 'test' dessert.  Granted, a breakfast bar is not a 'normal' dessert so I am not sure how it would go with a very sweet dessert but I am going to give that a go in the future.  

Will the object of your desire be impressed?

How could they not be impressed?  Homemade Peking duck and a premium wine - that's 3rd base right there! Ok even if you are not up for the homemade Peking duck this is still an impressive wine and you should make it plain to the desired one that you have gone to a lot of effort and the least they can do is worship you in return.  

What do you think? Send us a comment