Williams Selyem Vista Verde Late Harvest Gewurztraminer (375ML half-bottle) 2019
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Winemaker Notes
Spicy and boisterous aromas in the glass make the Gewurztraminer truly special and unique. Rose oil and lychee elements along with more classic poached stone fruit notes dominate to nose. The natural structure of this variety coupled with barrel fermentation in new oak adds structure and depth with notes of vanilla and nut spice which further round out the complexity. The exotic aromas are echoed on the palate with a creamy richness without being too heavy.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This ambrosial nectar is fascinatingly delicious every vintage. Aromas of jasmine tea, honey, tuberose, tangerine peel and the slightest hint of earthy funk lead into a viscous yet acid-washed palate. It dazzles in flavors of jasmine, lemongrass, Makrut lime and mango custard.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Hitting all of the Gewürztraminer marks smartly from roses to lychee-like fruit and distinctive spice with the added presence of honey and a creamy note of vanilla, this unctuous, downright luscious dessert wine has amazingly varietal authority despite being extremely sweet (16.9% residual sugar.) It is, all in all, absolutely fascinating and decidedly exotic stuff that will make for a memorable close to special meals, and, while there is no question in our minds that it will age famously for a good many years, providing that one has self-discipline enough to leave a few bottles untouched in the cellar, its softer balance affords it loads of accessible and immediate appeal. 375ml bottle.
Williams Selyem Winery began as a simple dream of two friends, Ed Selyem and Burt Williams, who pursued weekend winemaking as a hobby in 1979 in a garage in Forestville, California, and made their first commercial vintage in 1981. In less than two decades, Burt and Ed created a cult-status winery of international acclaim. Together they set a new standard for Pinot Noir winemaking in the United States, aligning Sonoma County's Russian River Valley in the firmament of the best winegrowing regions of the world. Today John and Kathe Dyson, who purchased the winery from Burt and Ed in 1998, carry on the passion for Pinot Noir winemaking without compromise. As for the wines... they just keep getting better and better.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
Taking advantage of the cool Pacific breezes that arrive via gaps between the Gabilan Range and the Santa Lucia Mountains, San Benito AVA is a great Central coast source for cool climate whites and Pinot noir.