Domaine Albert Boxler

This here is the kind of opulent yet disciplined Gewurztraminer that made me fall in love with wine as a young man, bewildered by the idea that this much complexity and aroma could exist in something made only from grapes. Boxler’s Réserve example (his favourite, he tells me, of his many Gewurz cuvées) is perfectly perfumed without excess. The aromatics skew delicately longan-like rather than lychee or rose, framed by ripe pink grapefruit, soursop, ylang-ylang, and frankincense, with notes of white sage and pineapple skins diving in and out at the edges. You lose yourself in it. And on the palate the wine does not disappoint with too much body, too little acid, or too much unctuousness, as lesser Gewurztraminers so often do. The wine is off-dry in the most pleasing and self-possessed way, rekindling that first astonishment before gliding into notes of Turkish-delight and rose blossom water and honey’d white tea. Then the finish… this wine resolves into a nostalgic pineapple upside-down cake note that’s to die for. I think texture is the trick here: the thing is just so curvy and tropical, entwined with soft, intricate waves of limestone-finessed acidity layered in waves of fruit and flower waters that have you hallucinating Gauguin paintings with ever sip. For pairing ideas, I am thinking fish pakora, seafood paella, or Basque cheesecake.