Gewurztraminer and Crab

Saturday Wine Snob Hubby wanted to compare the two Gerwuertz... Guerwert... you know what I mean. Anyway, he bought two different bottles at our recent field trip to Total Wine and
he wanted to taste them side by side.

RNDaughter was home for the weekend and she wanted crab. Usually we have one night a year with newspapers on the table, crackers (the metal kind, not the edible ones), wine, and a salad.

WSH checked his Wine Bible and MacNeil's Wine, Food, and Friends and decided it could work with the right accompanying sauces.

So we called some friends, threw the papers on the table, and chilled the wines.

The menu:

Crab (one non-shellfish eater had a chicken breast)
Assorted dipping sauces (Thai peanut, cocktail, spicy ginger, garlic and chile) and drawn butter
Ceasar salad
sourdough bread
And dark chocolate truffles for dessert.

First up:

Adler Fels Gewurtz from the Russian River Valley.

Heard around the table:

• "With the spicy sauces, it really opens up the flavor of the wine."
• "It's not sugary sweet, it's flowery sweet."
• "The spicy ginger sauce brought out the dry elements."
• "It pours pretty."

My uneducated thought: I liked it a lot. It stood up to both the crab and the vinegary salad dressing. A bite of bread refreshed the palate.

Next was the French edition, Vin d'Alsace Gewurtz (as the name implies, from Alsace):

Heard around the table:

• "Makes the cocktail sauce super hot."
• "Has a chardonnay finish."
• "Would be great with a spicy sushi."

I liked the Adler Fels wine better. Not that there was anything wrong with the Alsace, at least nothing I can articulate. The Adler Fels just seemed a better fit. It's very possible the Alsace would have been wonderful with Thai food or a jerk chicken with fruit salsa. We made it work with what we wanted and it's probably our fault that it didn't shine.