2020 Dry River Lovat Gewurztraminer, Martinborough

Ripe, intense gewürztraminer with typical floral, white rose, Turkish Delight flavours plus exotic tropical fruits and spice flavours. A no-pressure vintage has certainly helped to bring out the best of this off-dry wine. 06 MAY 2021 Drink 2021–2030

96 points Bob Campbell MW therealreview.com

The Dry River team believes that Gewurztraminer benefits greatly from multiple, staged pickings. The array of flavours, aromas and texture is a result of choosing opportune times for harvesting selected parcels, not merely the optimal condition for the complete block. 

A melange of aromas suggestive of Turkish Delight, nougat and almond paste are the immediate characters that spring to mind. Exotic fruits, orange peel and fresh apple provide further interest.

This is a bright light gold wine with an easily recognized Gewurztraminer nose. As the vines on this block have grown older, the spice fragrance from successive vintages has become more dominant – in the ’08 wine there are fruit cake spices, especially cloves coupled with the aromas of yellow peach and old fashioned roses on the nose. It has a residual sugar of around 20g/L but a voluptuousness and palate volume belying this. The flavours certainly make one sit up and take notice – powerful juicy yellow peach with ripe oranges (rather than the mandarin zest of the variety sourced from the home block) combine with Turkish delight and talc for a refreshing minerality and completed with oodles of spice – especially cloves. A very expressive wine: try with spicy roast pork belly or suckling pig with leeks.