Dry Gewürztraminer 2022, Claiborne & Churchill

"Gewürztraminer" translates to "spice Traminer," because it is a highly aromatic mutation of the the Savagnin Blanc grape, and has rosy pink skins. In fact, you might think it was a red grape if you saw it on the vine. But it is made without skin contact, so it is indeed a white wine. Gewürz actually has the same aroma compounds as lychee, and the finished wine is quite reminiscent of this tropical fruit. There are other tropical and exotic fruits on the nose: mango and even coconut. And on the palate, pineapple sneaks its way into the balance, making this one lip-smacking wine! We highly recommend you enjoy this wine with more heavily spiced foods of the world, such as Thai, Indian, or Cajun, though it is also delicious as an apperitif.

For Claiborne & Churchill, this is the wine that started it all! When Fredericka and Clay visited the French Alsace in the summer of 1983, it was above all the bold and fruity and spicy (and dry!) Gewürztraminers that commanded their attention. When they returned and thought about starting their own winery, the first thing they did was find a source of Gewürztraminer grapes for the upcoming 1983 Vintage. With three tons of that and another three tons of Riesling fruit, the first Claiborne & Churchill “Dry Alsatian Style” wines were produced, and they are still dedicated to these today.

About the Winery (from the Claiborne & Churchill website)

Claiborne & Churchill is a small, premium family-owned winery in the Edna Valley of San Luis Obispo, founded in 1983 by Claiborne (Clay) Thompson and Fredericka Churchill Thompson. Former teachers at the University of Michigan, the couple left the “Groves of Academe” for the vineyards of California in 1981 in order to begin a new life in the wine industry.

With its first crush Claiborne & Churchill announced its special focus, producing 565 cases of Dry Riesling and Dry Gewürztraminer, inspired by the fruity but dry dinner wines of the French province of Alsace. Today Claiborne & Churchill produces about 8,000 cases of wine each year, sourcing grapes from vineyards in the cool maritime valleys of California’s Central Coast and its own small estate vineyards.

In 1995 Clay and Fredericka completed construction on their new and permanent winery building. This structure, a noteworthy example of environmental architecture, is a "straw bale building," the first of its kind in California. With sixteen-inch thick walls made of bales of rice straw, the winery is so well insulated that it maintains a constant cellar temperature, without the need for mechanical cooling or heating.

Winemaker

A native of the Bay Area, Winemaker Zack Geers came to San Luis Obispo to study Wine & Viticulture with an emphasis on Enology at Cal Poly University.

“I’m sort of a science-and-math person,” says Zack, “so studying winemaking appealed to that side of me. I also grew up watching my parents drink wine, so it was something I’d been thinking about.”

In addition to his formal education, Zack became familiar with San Luis Obispo fruit by working several harvests at Edna Valley Vineyards. When it came time to graduate, he worked harvest at Wild Horse Winery in the Paso Robles AVA, and then got his passport stamped to work harvest in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, where Bordeaux varietals and Pinot Noir reign.

In June of 2013, Zack joined the team at Claiborne & Churchill by helping out in and around the cellar; by August, 2014, he had been named Assistant Winemaker. As of 2019, we are proud to announce Zack’s promotion to Head Winemaker. His years of cellar experience with our Alsatian-inspired white wines and our exquisite Pinot Noirs make him the ideal man for the job!

“I love working for a small winery,” he says. “Everything that happens here goes through my hands because it’s small enough for me to be involved at every level. Plus the people are really chill - like a second family.”