The Riesling Show

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Oskaar
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The Riesling Show

Post by Oskaar »

The Riesling Show – June 22, 2006

OK folks warm up your palates for some cool whites from around the world. Riesling enthusiasts should be stoked about this one.

Here they are:

Taltarni Riesling Tasmania “Lalla Gully” 2005 (Australia) - $11.99
Kilikanoon Riesling Clare Valley, Watervale “Mort’s Block” 2004 (Australia) - $15.99
Dveri-Pax Rizling Renski “E” 2004 (Slovenija) - $19.99
F.X. Pichler Riesling Smaragd Von den Terrassen (Austria) - $32.99
Prager Riesling Smaragd Kaiserberg 2004 (Austria) - $29.99
Hiedler Riesling Heiligenstein 2003 (Austria) - $35.99
Nigl Riesling Senftenberger Piri “Privat” 2003 (Austria) - $45.99
Domain Ostertag Riesling Heissenberg 2003 (Alsace) - $28.99
Albert Mann Riesling Cuvee Albert 2004 (Alsace) - $18.99
Albert Boxler Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg “L31D” 2003 (Alsace) - $42.99
Albert Boxler Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg “L31DII” 2002 (Alsace) - $27.99
Zind Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl 2002 (Alsace) - $57.99
Ch. Ste. Michelle w/ Dr. Loosen Riesling, Columbia Valley “Eroica” 2004 (Washington) - $17.99
J.L. Wolf Riesling Wachenheimer 2004 (Germany) - $9.99
Schloss Saarstein Riesling 2004 (Germany) – $9.99
Monchhof Riesling Kabinett Urzig Wurzgarten 2005 (Germany) - $14.99
Joh. Jos. Prum Riesling Spatlese Graacher Himmelreich 2004 (Germany) - $26.99
Joh. Jos. Christoffel Riesling Auslese Urziger Wurzgarten 2004 (Germany) $21.99

OK, for all you folks out there who are not familiar with Rieslings let me just say how diverse the fruit is around the world, and how very different the fruit and hence the wine from each of these geographic regions can be. These wines ranged from very acidic and mineralic to sweet with low acidity and mineral influence. I personally gravitate toward the Alsatian Rieslings because I find they bring everything to the table that I like.

With that in mind my choice for this group of whites is: Albert Boxler Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg “L31D” 2003 (Alsace)
This is a very well structured and balanced wine with enormous complexity. This wine is from an old vines section of the Dudenstein sub-plot of Sommerberg. The wine is pale gold and clear. The aroma is of citrus, pear, green apple, white flower and honeysuckle. It carries a steely, chalky minerality that is pronounced and intense. The minerality carries right down the middle of the very ripe and crisp green apple flavor (lots of malic acid here). It is a very tight wine at this point, but with air and swirling it opens up nicely. It will open up even more and improve with age. This has a long lingering lemony finish with bits of melon, citrus skin, and tart malic accents.

Honorable Mention: Joh. Jos. Prum Riesling Spatlese Graacher Himmelreich 2004
Nice clear, light gold color with floral, mineral, honey and citrus notes. It carries the citrus and mineral well on the mid and fades to a very clean and smooth finish that lingers and develops notes of lemon, honey and peach.

Value: Dveri-Pax Rizling Renski “E” 2004

This is a very nice wine for under $20 and it comes from Slovenija which is very close to Croatia. The Rizlings in Croatia are very similar to this one which exhibits a good pale gold color with good clarity and volume. It has a nice, floral fruity nose with a bit of sweet apple, mineral and grapefruit citrus in the nose. It is well balanced and delivers on the sweetness that is balanced with the citrus and mineral. This has a smooth, clean finish that lingers and develops hints of grapefruit skin, honey and melon. I’m glad to see Slovenija getting some recognition, and which Croatia would also step more prominently into the world wine exporting market. I suspect Slovenija is similar to Croatia in that most of the people who produce wine are making it for their own local target demographic rather than for gross distribution worldwide. The wines from this region have been lauded since around 500 BC, and with that in their blood, you know these winemakers can turn out quality product. Their long maceration programs really extract both the flavor of the fruit and the influence and color from the skins.

Cheers,

Oskaar
Don't go into the Pimped-Out-Refrigerator Jack!
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