Gewurztraminer Rorschwihr Vendanges Tardives
⏳ Drinking Window
2015 - 2035
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Munster cheese, foie gras, spicy Thai curry, or pear tart.
✨ Technical Specifications
Domaine Rolly Gassmann's Gewurztraminer Rorschwihr Vendanges Tardives is a masterclass in the art of patience and Alsatian late-harvest winemaking. Sourced from the ancient clay-limestone and marl soils of Rorschwihr—a village with a viticultural history dating back to the Merovingian kings—this wine benefits from a unique microclimate where autumn mists and warm winds encourage the gentle development of noble rot (botrytis). The Gassmann family allows the Gewurztraminer grapes to hang late into the season, concentrating sugars, acidity, and complex aromatics. True to the estate's signature philosophy, the wine undergoes a slow fermentation with natural yeasts and is aged for years in their massive cellars before it is deemed ready for the public. The result is a remarkably opulent, texturally rich sweet wine that balances exotic lychee, ginger, and honeyed spice notes with a vibrant, mineral-driven backbone.
🍾 About the Producer
Domaine Rolly Gassmann emerged in 1967 through the marriage of Marie-Thérèse Rolly and Louis Gassmann, unifying two families with winemaking lineages in Alsace dating to 1676 and 1611 respectively. Situated in Rorschwihr along the complex Ribeauvillé fault line, the estate commands over 50 hectares characterized by a mosaic of 21 distinct limestone-dominant subsoil profiles. Opting out of the Alsace Grand Cru hierarchy in favor of expressing traditional historic lieux-dits, current winemaker Pierre Gassmann operates strictly within biodynamic rhythms. The viticultural approach champions late physiological and phenological harvesting, intentionally courting noble rot across micro-parcels. In the cellar, natural fermentations proceed unhurried for four to six months. Celebrated for an obsessive dedication to bottle maturation, Rolly Gassmann stores millions of bottles in a state-of-the-art multi-level cellar before commercial release. The benchmark portfolio spans opulent, long-lived expressions from lieux-dits such as Silberberg, Kappelweg, and Pflaenzerreben, alongside lusciously concentrated Vendanges Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles.
🍇 Grapes
Gewurztraminer