So on Friday I hopped down to Los Angeles for a Saturday night wine tasting at which the hostess asked for dry gewurztraminers and carignane. This group was formed 30 years ago by me and Ines Nyby, who I met on this forum. When Bob and I moved away the group started this habit of featuring two wine types, one white and one red, and often disparate/odd combinations and possibly that's a good thing instead of sticking with the tried and true. I'm nonetheless proud to report that this group formed very strong friendships and still gathers once a month for wine dinners and frequently they travel together as well.
In my suitcase was a Dowsett gewurz from Washington state and a La Cebene carignane from the Languedoc. I left home a little later than I should have, and on the way got stopped by a train. Then to make matters worse, I didn't realize how late I was and chose to park in the furthest reaches of an economy lot to protect my precious car instead of the busy lot directly in front of the terminal as I could have to speed up my ability to check-in at least 50 minutes prior to take-off. In fact, I was right at 50 minutes. At which point the computerized system at our Liliputian airport shuts down the desk and transfers control to the gate, leaving the CSRs unable to make exceptions.
Which meant my suitcase was now a carry-on. With two bottles of wine in it.
I had to abandon them, no choice. I gingerly put them in a trash can, which was empty, carefully noted its location and once thru TSA called my brother who zoomed over to pick them up. It only took him 20 minutes to get there, but the crack janitorial staff had already emptied the trash and taken the contents to a dumpster. I was bereft to learn of it, but also pissed off that I now had a carry-on to lug around Sea-Tac on my 3-hour layover.
The flight left an hour late due to some repair to a seat, and once in L.A. the rental car agency was a zoo. I waited in line for an hour to get my car. By the time I got in it, it was already 8:30 and dark, and I was dismayed to discover that it only spoke Spanish. It could probably be reset easily enough if you speak enough Spanish, but I do not. At least I had Waze on my phone and could rely on that and my own local knowledge for directions. 10.5 tense hours after leaving home, I arrived at Ines' home where a comforting glass of Spanish red was waiting.
The next morning I went shopping. La Canada-Flintridge has a nice local wine shop. He had exactly one gewurz, a Trimbach. Good as Trimbach is, the chances of someone else bringing one was extremely high so I decided to go the ringer route, spending $66 on a very fine Condrieu. I also bought a Corbieres blend--40% carignane was the best I could do.
Uh oh. Interrupted. To be continued...
Okay, I'm back. Here are five of the gewurzes. There were 7 in all. One I didn't even catch the name of, and another was served later because the guy who brought it forgot to put it in the lineup.
2018 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Alsace Gewürztraminer
See? I told you. Pineapple, tangerine, dried apple, minerals, hint of petrol.
2023 Arthur Metz Gewurztraminer Épicé Puissant Alsace Gewürztraminer
Heavily perfumed nose, modestly off dry, with lychee, pineapple, clove, nutmeg and gardenias. (Does anyone remember Tweed perfume? THAT.) Everything that gewurz should be and that I don't like about it. And here's the funny part: I was convinced this was my Viognier. I didn't vote for it, but it got 2nd overall from everyone else.
2021 Domaine du Chêne Condrieu Viognier
My wine, and group #1. Driest wine on the table with profound complexity and depth featuring white flowers, white peach, dried apples, cinnamon, hay, raw cashews and salinity.
2014 Two Vintners O.G. Yakima Valley Gewürztraminer
Trump-tan orange, and yes it's truly an orange wine. A one-off from a WA winemaker I respect a lot. Dry with complex notes of dried apricots, orange peel, ginger, and cardamom. Brilliant showing.
2012 Bowers Harbor Gewürztraminer Leelanau Peninsula
My first Michigan wine, I believe. Not dessert-wine territory but quite sweet, though tangy. Eh.
And then the reds got poured, and I got sick and went to bed without taking notes, and before I left Ines gifted me a bottle so for Sunday travel I had to check my bag (I otherwise would not have, sans wine it was pretty light) and I was sitting on the plane all systems 'go' when we got the news about the IT outage and there went the next 36 hours of my life, mostly spent standing in lines, no sleep, and worried about the whereabouts of that damned suitcase. All because of wine.