No wine announces itself like Gewurztraminer: lychee, rose and ginger rise from the glass before it is fairly poured. Alsace made it its signature — golden, opulent, bottled in the tall flûte the region requires — and labelled it by grape variety generations before varietal labelling became the world's habit.
The pink-skinned grape reaches its heights on the slopes of the grands crus, and its late-harvest expressions were given legal form in 1984, when vendanges tardives and sélection de grains nobles were codified. At table it does what few whites can: stand up to Munster cheese from the neighbouring valleys, and to spiced cuisines from far beyond them.