WSET 1 tasting notes 3 – 2007 Gewürztraminer, Wunsch et Mann, AC Alsace

France, 13%, £10.99
http://www.wunsch-mann.fr/
Colour: clear – medium – gold
Nose: clean – pronounced – perfumed, clove
Palate: medium – (high) low acidity – no tannins – medium body – ginger, ripe apple, rose petal – medium length
Conclusion: (very good) good
Ok, so a bit of a favourite for me. The room was divided. What was concluded, with our personal preferences put aside, was it was a good example of type for the money spent.
Understanding the label
2007 the vintage
Gewürztraminer the most unpronounceable grape variety name for a Brit.
Wunsch et Mann the producer
AC is ‘Appellation Contrôlée’
Alsace the region of the named country France
Gewürztraminer is a pink-skinned variety of the Traminer white grape family, originally a native of the Tyrol region of northern Italy. The addition of the ‘Gewürz’ from the German word for 'spiced', used here to mean perfumed, is applied to the descendant grown mostly in the Alsace region of France and sparsely in the neighbouring region in Germany. Fragile to grow and low yielding it produces a highly perfumed wine with low acids. Drier styles and wines from higher yielding crops have been criticized for weaker character.
AC is short for AOC, Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée. This is the French mark that led to the creation of all the other European QWPSR. Following three devastations of the European vine stock in the late nineteenth century, the greatest being from the Phylloxera insect, many old and established regional wines became almost unavailable. An influx of cheaper, inferior wines to plug the gap led to many French regions drawing up classifications to differentiate themselves from these as production recovered. By the 1920s Baron le Roy of the Châteauneuf du Pape region drew up further codes limiting grape varieties, farming practices and ABVs for each region’s producers. Hence 1936 and 1937 is when France’s major appellations date the introduction of their controls. Rules within them are tweaked, but rarely majorly altered. The model was adopted in the European QWPSR marks and similar practices exist in the other major wine producing parts of the world.
Alsace as an appellation is unique in its climate and culture. Having been part of France, then Germany, and fought over back and forth throughout history, culturally it is between the two, and more importantly distinct from them both. The same can be said for its distinctive wines.

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