This past week saw us eating at our brother’s house and we brought over a few bottles of wine.  The dinner started with a sweet and sour Salmon, so we complimented it with the newly released 2008 Willm Gewurztraminer.  On an aside, this is the very first time that one of the famous houses of Alsace has released a kosher wine, super cool!  The wine’s crazy alcohol content is some 16% – and I think it was higher!  The mouth is super rich, with lychee, apple, and honeyed flavors, and DRY!  Forget about that sweet and cloying like wines that some of you folks drink for Kiddush or desert.  Nope this is a classic Alsace Gewurztraminer, which is dry and honeyed and can stand up to sour and/or spicy foods.  In many ways it tastes like a Viognier, except without a drop of sweet oak or sweet flavors.  That said, the sweetness comes along in a weird way because of extremely high alcohol and not because of a heavy perfume and/or residual sugars.

After the bottle disappeared between the meal occupants, my sister-in-law brought out a bevy of main courses – four of them I think, along with an abundance of side dishes.  The main courses consisted of a beauty roast,  potatoes and meatballs, pepper steak, and shoulder roast.  The side dishes were large and varied, along with some nice kibbeh and Moroccan cigars. My sister-in-law made a ton of food, and many others, brought over food, and it was a crazy feast.

We had a two wines to pair with the rich meat dishes and both of them were nice, but the clear winner was the 2003 Ella Valley Cabernet.  The other wine was the 2008 Elvi Wines Matiz Rioja.  The Matiz was awesome out of the gate with rich chocolate and tobacco on the nose and mouth, but that petered out quickly and what we were left with was a slightly boring wine, to be honest.  The EV Cab on the other hand was a multi layered and complex wine that was just awesome.  Really a nice showing for the winery, and it is not even the acclaimed Vineyard Choice.

Thank you my brother and family, and I hope to share many more happy occasions.  The food and the ambiance were killer!  The wine notes follow below:

2008 Willm Gewurztraminer – Score: B – B+
The nose on this rich golden yellow color, is hot from its 16% alcohol, along with honeycomb, jasmine, lemon, lychee, and a touch of mineral.  The mouth on this medium bodied wine is viscous and tastes somewhat sweet while not being so (an offshoot of the alcohol).  It follows with a Muscat like flavor that helps to pick up the rest of the mouth that consists of honeydew, apple, and orange juice.  The mid palate is light on acidity and bitter from mineral flavors.  The finish is medium long with a strong honey presence and some bitterness that trails out of the mid palate.  This is an OK wine, but it lacks balance, crispness, and is a bit too bitter.

2008 ElviWines Matiz Rioja – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet, 100% Tempranillo wine, starts right out of the bottle with a powerful nose of chocolate and tobacco.  As the wine opens up, the chocolate and tobacco give way to cherry and raspberry notes.  The mouth on this full bodied wine is smooth and concentrated, with cherry and raspberry fruit that follow the nose.  The mid palate is bright enough to balance out the wine while sharing space with a hint of tannins that are integrating nicely.  The finish is long with a return of the cherry fruit, acidity, on a bed tobacco leaves and chocolate candy.

2003 Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is hopping with blackberry, cassis, plum, sweet oak, and roasted herbs.  The mouth of this brooding, complex, and multi layered wine is really nice with black fruit that comes at you in layers after layers of blackberry and plum.  The mid palate flows nicely from the layers of fruit with oak, bracing acidity, and integrating tannins.  The finish is extra long with black fruit from the mouth, along with hints of sweet oak, tobacco, and spice.