Twisted River's Gewürztraminer

About 7 months ago, a friend of mine gave me a bottle of wine as a house warming present. My experience with wine has been limited, but I have been making it a point to expand my horizons, so to speak. The wine is a Gewürztraminer made by Twisted River and bottled in 2005. As any eager new wine adventurer, I opened the bottle right away, excited about a new taste. This was an awful idea. The wine, to be polite, was shit.

Now, I've already admitted that I don't know much about wine. What I do know is limited to the movie Sideways and an afternoon spent at the London museum Vinopolis. That being said, however, I could find nothing redeeming about this wine. The bottle boasts "intense pear, apricot, and litchi flavors". None of these flavors made themselves apparent in the three swallows I forced down my throat. So I did what I am famous for; I put it in my fridge and left it there for 7 months.

Last week a good friend of mine showed up and all I had to offer him was this wine. For as little as I know about wine, he knows even less. I apologized for what I was about to do and I poured him, and myself, a glass. One sip and he began to rave about how great this wine was. I initially thought he was being polite. Then I realized that he has never stood on ceremony around me. So I took a sip and was amazed to find that what had once been unpalatable had been transformed into a fantastic beverage. The apricot flavor was magnified tenfold, making it light and fruity. Needless to say we polished off the bottle.

I would definitely recommend this wine...if you don't mind waiting 7 months for it to reach perfection. If you do decide to go out and pruchase Twisted River's 2005 Gewürztraminer, twist open the top, put it in the back of your refrigerator, and plan a party for 7 months down the road.