Riesling

What I won’t be drinking again-Syrah & Riesling non-picks

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I like wine, and a lot of my posts are positively slanted toward my reviews. However, there comes a time when I drink something–often that has had a rave review–that I tend not to like.   This is one of those times.  And rather than label this as a “What not to drink” post, I admit, it might just be me.

On the heels of drinking a very good Côte-Rôtie, I opened a Zaca Mesa 2008 Syrah from Santa Ynez Valley (14.5%).  I also recently described my love of the Santa Barbara region, and so I thought, this might be a no brainer pick.  It wasn’t.

The $21.99 wine drank like a cherry cough syrup that had been soaking in fake oak.  The pepper–doused with a heavy hand–finished each drink.  Had I been hunting with the flu (eating beef jerky and downing it with said cough syrup) this would have been the same experience as drinking the wine.

The other dislike of the day, and I admit it pains me more than the Syrah, is the 2010 Brooks’ Riesling from Willamette Valley ($17.99). This is the wine that brought me into to the store to buy Brooks wine in the first place, and while I loved, loved, loved the elegant Pinot Noir sampled a few days ago, this one just didn’t do it for me.  At 11.5% abv, I was looking for a dry, refined Riesling in a style I love of its German counterparts.  But the highly acidic (which is good) prevalently sweet green apple taste of a Jolly Rancher candy bite (which is not good in my opinion–but don’t get me wrong; it is a dry wine), make me rethink Riesling from places other than Germany and Austria (I do have an upstate New York Riesling on my shelf that I’m keeping my eye on, however, so stay tuned).

Try if you like, but on my shelf these wines nevermore will go.

(But please take the poll below to help me give these wines a second chance).

1 out of 5

 

 

Summer Solstice, Fishing, and Rieslings to celebrate!

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“I go fishing not to find myself but to lose myself.” –Joseph Monniger

Day one on the water in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota (see location under “isolated”) and it’s easy to realize that it’s hard to be stressed out with a fishing pole in the hand, a beautiful lake before you, and some sun setting in the distance.  My first trip to my parents’ cabin in over a decade, I wondered, “What took me so long to return?”

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Backing up one week, I discovered that of all the wines I buy, my mother has taken to Riesling the most. In preparation, I went to Surdyks in NE Minneapolis because I knew they would have an adequate selection.  And since she would likely be cooking up the spoils of our fishing, I wanted to appease the cook.

The wines:

Willi Schaefer, 2012 Graacher Domprobst Riesling, Kabinett, Mosel (8.0%) (Retail: On sale, $15.99).  A traditional-style Riesling, this wine was a great “opener” for the first night of fishing that marked the Summer Solstice.  (No fish yet, but cheese complimented this selection). Fruit forward of tropical fruit of perhaps light mango and peach meets yellow apple, and pear.  True to style, there is an elegance of minerality and high acidity that keeps this wine from being sweet at 8% alcohol.  As the sun lasted well past 10:00 pm, this wine, too, was bright, light and silky fun.

 

Theo Minges Weingut’s, 2007 Der Froschkonig Spatlese, Pfalz (12.5%) (Retail: $29.99).  Named after a German tale, “The Frog King” (Think girl kisses frog he becomes a prince.  But this is the German version, so girl throws frog against a wall, and they live happily ever after), this wine is a tale of its own! The winemaker left this wine untouched for 18 months after harvesting.  The DSC_0104result: A delightful, elegant and surprisingly impactful dry Riesling that tasted of still, vintage champagne.  While no yeast touched the process, this wine opened with zesty, fruity and flowery notes of golden apple, gooseberry, and white flowers and opened into notes of yeast and minerality.  Like a fairy tale, the high acid and long finish was like a finely filtered ray of sunlight that one could hold in the palm, and palette, to remember the day in one’s senses.  Highly recommend.

 

Weingut and Weinstube Kruger-Rumpf, 2007 Binger Schorlachberg Riesling Spatlese (8.5%) (Retail: $34.99).  Karen MacNeil writes in the Wine Bible that the essence of German Rieslings is the essence of “transparency”–that there is a nakedness and a preciseness to these wines that defines their elegance.  I couldn’t agree more.  On a day were our limit was caught (a fun and whopping 20 walleye!), this honey-straw colored wine had no pretense to hide–it was the pinnacle of my Riesling experiment.  Ripe yellow apple, grapes, pear, melon notes met the deeper characteristics of brioche and yeast, wet mineral notes below.  It was smooth and silky, as a grown-ups cottoncandy held in the mouth before dissolution.  I could drink this every day to remind myself what the good things in life are. It was stunning.

Rieslings, like my belief that a 10 hour trip up North could be fun, are the come-from-behind contenders.  But the good ones, and there are many, are easy to find if you push past the shelves in your store that simply scream, “I’m cheap! I’m sweet!” If in doubt, look for the eagle on the bottle with the cluster of grapes in the center: This is the logo of the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates which is awarded to the top 200 producers.

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Falling for Riesling

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As I walked in the woods today, with a premature autumn note in the air, my thoughts turned to Thoreau.  “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” Moments at peace in clean air, ripening leaves, and crispening air are priceless.  And I’ve found that in terms of wine, its price does not need to equal the quintessential arm and a leg pay-to-play fee.  Enter: The Riesling.

The Wine: Peter Jakob Bruhn’s “Jacobus”‘s 2011 Rheingau Riesling Troken is a single vineyard Riesling and it is amazing.  I mentioned I went for the first walk of a burgeoning autumn in Minnesota, and it’s taste is that like a color wheel of fall leaves swept over a golden, green field on the edge of a darkening woods.

On the nose, there is a bit of yeasty brioche, as if a distant cousin of Champagne.  On the palette, there are notes of green and golden apple, with a faint bit of pear and hints of passion fruit.  The acid is high, and it is a crisp, bone dry wine with a medium-long finish and no lingering tartness.  It is complex like the light entering an evening in the autumn woods.

RieslingIf you are a fan of reds when the temps start to drop, you might have another wine to add to the line-up.  This wine pairs nicely with some Italian antipasti and high-acid foods–it will go well with fish or even a day in front of a football game.   At 11.5% in alcohol, it ranks a little higher than other Rieslings, but you can drink this entire bottle AND still make the workout in the morning.

Just be prepared to look at a white wine, and a Riesling, in a new way. Again, in Thoreau’s words, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”  You will see a quality wine in a quality Riesling.