Fair warning: This will be a brief but unusually geeky post.

I was looking over the NASS figures on grape acreage in the area this weekend, and noticed a couple of anomalies in the data.

Firstly, there's no Malvasia Bianca listed in Santa Clara. Yet Kirigin have been making an estate Malvasia Bianca for ages, from 6 acres of what are supposedly 60+ year old vines.

Also there's no Gewurztraminer listed in Santa Cruz County. Yet I know for a fact that there's about an acre at the Woodruffe vineyard; there may be more.

So how does NASS collect the data, and how accurate is it really?

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When it comes to white wines I like them either dry or very sweet, such as Sauternes or Tokaj. But sometimes the food is cooked with fruit and has some sweetness to it; for example sweet and sour pork. Food like that calls out for a wine with a bit of sweetness, such as Riesling, Pinot Gris or Gewürztraminer.

Fogarty's Gewürztraminer is a great example of the style. It has a terrific nose of honeysuckle and lychee that continues on the palate. It's fruity without being sweet, and there's enough flavour and acidity to stand up against sweet or spicy oriental and indian food. It's also good with cheese and is a good value; you can typically find it between $10 and $13. In fact the only thing I don't like about it is the bottle; it's the tall, narrow, Alsace style that doesn't fit well in a cellar or refrigerator. But that's OK since it's stoppered with a screwcap, so doesn't need to be laid down, and isn't intended for cellaring.

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