An important high quality pink-skinned white grape grown all over the world to produce deep-coloured, full-bodied whites with the memorable and extremely distinctive smell of lychees and rose petals veering towards bacon fat in very ripe examples. Gerwürz means spice in German, although it tends to produce exotically perfumed rather then spice laden wines. It invariably ripens to a very high alcohol level and can lose acidity dangerously. If ripened too fast in a warm climate it can be oily or even bitter.

It is the second most widely planted grape in Alsace and the most widely planted in the Haut-Rhin where it is particularly well suited to the clay-rich soils found in the Vosges foothills. It is normally fermented dry and produces golden, medium to full-bodied wine with heady aromas of lychees, rose petals and white peaches. It attains naturally high sugar levels far in excess of Riesling and this makes it ideal for sweet, late harvest wines more reliably than any of the other three noble grape varieties (Riesling, Pinot Gris and Muscat). These can be unctuously sweet and luscious and the best can last for decades.

It is also planted in Germany (specifically in the Rheinpfalz and Baden regions), Austria, the Alto Adige in Italy and to a lesser extent in Australia, New Zealand, California, Washingtson State and Oregon.