Opulent and Unctuous

There’s a double-edged sword with certain wine descriptors.  In the wider world, opulence can have negative connotations, bordering on extravagance, and unctuousness can mean sickly sweet in cuisine circles.  But for the wine aficionado, these terms can be positively positive.  It’s a matter of learning the context in which such words are used.

With the 2010 Dry River ‘Lovat Vineyard’ Martinborough Gewurztraminer, these terms show the wine to be something special.  SWMBO and I had saved it up, and we shared it with The Young One and Jo-Lo.  Whenever they’re here, it’s a good enough reason to share something delicious.  Still young in appearance, the wine had decadent perfumes with rose-petal and exotic florals enhanced by honied notes.  Yet this was stylish and not brazen or OTT as Gewurztraminers can often be.  A medium-sweet wine, the fruit expression was clear as a bell, but the weight and richness of the sugar and the fruit brought out the words opulent and unctuous.  The words balance and freshness should have accompanied the former two words, for that was what the wine was.