Germans spell it Gewürztraminer. Competes with Sauvignon Blanc as an ideal introduction to white wine - and easy for a newcomer to wine to recognise. With Sauvignon it's all about that unforgettable smell and a virtual absence of colour. With Gewurz, it's all about another unforgettable smell and one of the deepest colours of any white wine.
This last is because, like Pinot Gris/Grigio, the skin of a Gewurz grape is actually pink, not pale green, so it is not surprising that pigments remain in the wine to give it a deep golden, sometimes copper colour.
As for Gewurz's aroma, the first thing to say is that it is extremely powerful. Its exact character is probably most accurately likened to the smell of lychees/litchis - that exotic, tropically-laden scent - with a fair measure of pungent rose petals and, in some of the most concentrated examples, a savoury element that some have likened to bacon fat. Sounds a strange combination? It is certainly a potentially combustive mixture, not a wine to take second place to food. Ideal with spicy Asian foods.
