St. Michael Eppan Gewurztraminer Linea Sanct Valentin 2011 750ml

Winery: St. Michael Eppan

Varietal: Gewurztraminer

Gewurztraminer is a highly interesting grape varietal, as the fruit is normally a dark blushed pink in color, often veering towards purple, yet it produces highly elegant white wines prized in its native central Europe and elsewhere around the world. The Gewurztraminer grapes contain quite a high amount of natural sugars, resulting in wines which are 'off-dry' and give the impression of sweetness, without being classed as actually sweet. What this grape is most noted for, however, is its remarkable flavors: highly perfumed, full of notes of rose water, Turkish delight, lychees and other aromatic fruits. Despite being notoriously difficult to grow, the Gewurztraminer grapes have such unique and fine qualities that many wineries continue to persevere with these fickle vines, and their popularity is expected to continue growing in the future.

Country: Italy

For several decades in the mid to late twentieth century, Italy's reputation for quality wines took a fairly serious blow. This was brought about partly due to lack of regulation in certain regions, and too much regulation in others. This led to several wineries in the beautiful and highly fertile region of Tuscany making the bold move to work outside of the law, which they saw as responsible for the drop in quality in Tuscan wines. They believed that they had the expertise and the generations of experience necessary with which to make truly excellent, world class wines, and set about doing just that. These 'Super Tuscans', as they came to be known, quickly inspired the rest of Italy to improve their produce, and now, Italian wine producers in the twenty-first century are widely recognised to be amongst the best in the world. Regulation and law began to change, and wine drinkers across the globe woke up to the outstanding wines coming out of Italy, which are continuing to improve and impress to this day.