Gewurztraminer with Friends

With the right group, a good bottle of wine is a great thing to share with friends. With the recent addition of three similar wines to our rack, we had an opportunity for an interesting horizontal tasting, with far too much wine for just Tina and myself, so we invited a couple of friends over to share, and see what they thought.

It was an enjoyable evening. We had three interesting bottles to try, all variations on the Gewurztraminer grape from Castilla de Amorosa. With a bottle of standard Gewurztraminer, a bottle of semi-dry Dolcino, and a Late Harvest, we had a chance to compare some drastically different styles of wine, against a range of palates. We tasted a bit of each wine on its own, then had a bit with a fun, casual meal from a Thai take-out place. We spent a chunk of the evening comparing notes on the flavors and aromas. Our guests were less familiar with the grape, so didn't quite know what to expect from something with such a crazy name.

It was a fun way to learn something new about wine. We've taken classes, done tastings at wineries, and talked about a bottle of wine over dinner, but we've never sat down with others to compare similar wines like this. It was interesting to talk about the smells and flavors, to compare and contrast what we each found.