Gewürztraminer

Gewürztraminer is a pink-skinned mutation of savagnin, the grape of the Jura's vin jaune, and the German prefix means spiced. It is the most immediately recognisable white wine there is: lychee, rose petal, Turkish delight and ginger, so pronounced that people who have smelled it once identify it blind.

The lychee note comes from a compound called cis-rose oxide, and gewürztraminer contains far more of it than any other variety. The trade-off is acidity. It ripens early to high sugar with low acid, so the wine is full-bodied, high in alcohol, often 14 percent or more, and can feel heavy and slightly oily. Its pink skin also gives it more phenolic grip than most whites, which shows as a faint bitterness on the finish.

Alsace is its home, where it is made dry, off-dry and as late-harvest vendange tardive and sélection de grains nobles. It also grows in Germany, Alto Adige, Austria, Hungary, New Zealand and cool parts of California. It needs a cool site to hold any acidity at all, and a warm one turns it into a caricature of itself.