WTN: 2007 Left Foot Charley Gewurztraminer

I made the long drive last year from Kalamazoo, where we were visiting our daughter, to Traverse City to get some wine from Left Foot Charley. Ever since it has been rationed out in our house at about a bottle per month. At first, the Gewurztraminer had a sharp, young, even non-Gewurz taste and I began rueing making that long trip with nothing much to see. Then we opened one 2 nights ago and I'm so glad I went. This one was all that Gewurz should be. Spicy without being brash, flowery, mineraly, good mouth feel, long taste. Unless this bottle was a fluke, the wine has improved dramatically. As I began to write this note, I noticed the back label and realized that it pretty much sums up my own experience:

When the first Gewurz vine sprung from the ground it must have startled the locals. So much spice to contain in one bottle – could it be tamed? Through the years of coaxing we have learned that Gewurz likes the bottle. The tight surrounds are comforting like a den. Then it wakes from hibernation with an aromatic roar and spicy snarl.

At other times, owner/wine maker Bryan Ulbrich has commented that the learning he had to do was to let Gewurz be. Acid is low and pH is high. The temptation to do something has to be resisted and the phenols and alcohol allowed to carry the taste. The alcohol by the way is 14.2%. I don't know what the acid and RS numbers are. The wine no longer is listed on the website. As I recall, it was about $18.

the RS for that wine is .8 - which is quite a bit higher than the ones he made at Peninsula Cellars. the protocol for making Gewurz that he gave to you is the one Tom Stevenson gave to him in October of 2003.