Red Newt Cellars Gewurztraminer 2017
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Robert
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As beautiful as the single vineyard Gewürztraminers Red Newt bottles can be, they are opulent and bruising wines with a very loud personality. This version is made and blended in such a way that it is lighter, more refreshing, and with more fruit aromas as compared to rose perfume. A friendlier Gewürztraminer.
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Wine Enthusiast
Intensely perfumed accents of orange blossom, white pepper and grapefruit ride over a ripe core of yellow apple and Mandarin orange on the nose. The palate is full and silky in feel yet honed by bright shots of juicy acidity and waxy apple peel. It’s a beautifully textured white that is only made more enticing by its lingering floral pink-peppercorn finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Gewürztraminer, a wine Red Newt and owner David Whiting have made since the 1980s, was sourced from Nutt Road Vineyard. It comes in with five grams of sugar, 5.3 of total acidity and 14% alcohol. The winery says it is picked entirely based on flavor ripeness to bring out "a rich, dry style." Whew. This is very aromatic, classic for the grape, but invigorating in its exuberance, nonetheless. Spice, lychees and all that aromatic jazz make this a fine representation of the grape at a very nice price. It should age pretty well too (see the note on the library wine, the 2008). There were 341 cases produced.
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Robert
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Robert
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David and Debra Whiting met in the late 1980s when David was working as cellar master at a Finger Lakes winery and Debra was supervising microbiology labs at Cornell University. David’s oenological career blossomed as he worked at three different vineyards in Finger Lakes and Debra’s passion for food led her to start a gourmet cheesecake business and then an upscale catering company. The couple founded Red Newt Cellars in 1998 and Debra opened the Red Newt Bistro alongside the first wine releases in June of 1999. In 2011 Debra’s life was sadly cut short, prompting David to delegate some of his duties and hire a winemaker. In 2014 Kelby Russell, a Finger Lakes native, joined the team as the head winemaker.
Today, the Red Newt Cellars winery and Bistro are located in the small town of Hector in the Finger Lakes region of New York, on the southeastern corner of Seneca Lake. At 600 meters below sea level, Seneca Lake is the deepest of the Finger Lakes and one of the deepest lakes in the United States. The effects of the lake and the resulting range of surrounding altitudes and soil types create a wide array of unique terroirs in a relatively small area.
All of the vineyards Red Newt work with for their vinifera program are located on and around the Lake. To the Northwest, Nut Road is comprised of limestone and sandstone and produces an aromatic, delicate Loire Valley-style Cabernet Franc used for Kelby’s rosé. To the west sits Lahoma Vineyard, Red Newt’s largest vineyard. This land is all sandstone and is one of the highest vineyards in the area. The Knoll, a parcel within Lahoma Vineyard that is used to grow the benchmark Riesling for Red Newt, is the highest point at 1,600 ft. Nearby, lower-lying vines provide grapes for some of the other wines including the Circle Riesling and the Dry Riesling. Near the bottom of the lake is Tango Oaks, a compelling site that is a flood plain offering a mix of silt and loam on top of the bedrock. This site features Riesling planted to Alsatian clones, as opposed to the more typical German style Geisenheim ones, which brings an interesting tropical fruit finish to wines from this spot. The east bank of the lake is called the “Banana Belt,” a reference to its warm climate that farmers used to joke was well situated for banana growing. This microclimate is where you’ll find Red Newt’s red varieties, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.