RIESLING: GERMANY

+MUST TRY+
Dr. Heidemans-Bergweiler Riesling
Germany: Mosel River Valley
Riesling (white)
2009
89+ pts
$12.99
Picked up this German Riesling at Binny's Beverage Depot on Clark Street for thirteen bucks (it's a Gary Vaynerchuck rec on Daily Grape.com). GV got this one right; hell, I even think he may have underplayed it a bit, for my palette. This is a delicious wine, one I think that can change some minds about this varietal for those who view Riesling as a distasteful, Koolaid-like sweet wine...especially Rieslings at this price. While I find the nose to be awfully stingy, the mouth feel, taste, and length are outstanding. This is a medium-bodied German white offering bright citrus, fresh apple, and a long, dry finish with plenty of minerality. It's also a wonderfully balanced wine, with smooth, seamless transitions from the initial citrus burst to the mouthful of apples, and then to the encore of river rock-like minerals. The mineral finish, in particular, is rewarding...sort of like a Springsteen encore featuring Thunder Road and Jungleland: as good as the show was, the encore blows you away. Needless to say I like this wine, and give it a most-definite MUST TRY.

Starling Castle Riesling
Germany: Mosel-Saar Ruwer
Riesling (white)
2006
86+ pts
$9.99
The nose on this straw-colored, semi-sweet Riesling offers pear with a hint of tobacco, while the taste profile includes peach on the front end, heavy pear on the mid-palette, and a minerality on the finish. This wine starts sweet and finishes a bit sour. The length is slightly above average, and on extreme back end, there is even a nice dry finish (odd, really, in a semi-sweet Riesling). That's all pretty cool for a ten dollar bottle of wine, and if you prefer sweetness in your whites (as opposed to more mineralty or florality), this wine might be a MUST TRY for you. For my palette, it's a bit too sweet up front. Tried this wine with corned beef and cabbage, including a bit of horseradish with the beef. Not a great pairing. By no means a ripoff at ten bucks, but also not a wine I'm eager to keep on hand.

Römerhof Weinkellerei Riesling
Germany: Mosel River Valley (Trittenheim)
Riesling (white)
2009
85 pts
$8.99
Received this bottle of Mosel Riesling as part of a Christmas gift basket from a kind family at school, and opened her up this evening to try with Dana's homemade pesto and pasta. In terms of a food pairing--Riesling is so damn food friendly--a spicier dish would have been better, given the sweetness of this wine. The nose is awfully stingy--after it has warmed up a bit in the glass, I do get a little butter--but the mouth feel is quite pleasing (butter again comes to mind). The taste profile is quite fruit-forward, as one would expect, with quick little hits of peach and apricot and stronger, more sustained apple and pear flavors. The very back end possesses a hint of minerality (which I like), while the length is practically non-existent: poof! and it's gone. This is not a terrible wine, and in a pinch could go well with some spicey Asian dishes. But it's also not the kind of wine I enjoy drinking sans food, and despite the variety of fruit flavors offered, it drinks as a one-dimensional wine. Back in '09 Whole Foods had this wine on its Top Ten Holiday Wine List, and I can see it being consumed with cranberry sauce and stuffing, but still, just an average wine for my palette: beter than the worst junk Rieslings out there (i.e., Polka Dot), but nothing to get excited about, either.

+MUST TRY+
Carl Reh Riesling
Germany: Mosel River Valley
Riesling (white)
2009
89 pts
$9.99
Just enjoyed a few glasses of this bright and delicious Riesling from Germany at Dozika Pan-Asian in Evanston, where Sara, Ken, Jessica and I had lunch the day before Thanksgiving. Wow. Paired it with spicy Kung Pao chicken, which worked very nicely (Riesling is so food-friendly, given its acidity and potential for balancing out spicy dishes with a little sweetness and minerality). This wine, priced at $7.00 a glass at Dozika but about ten bucks a bottle retail, can also stand tall on its own. It's fresh, full of life, with a delightful taste that is reminiscent of the Apricot preserves my grandmother used to buy and serve on toasted white bread. This strikes me as a semi-dry wine, however (not at all candy sweet like some Kool-Aid style Rieslings) and even offers hints of minerality on the finish. Perhaps the only shortcoming is that the length is average, vanishing soon after consumption--and this, along with a lack of real complexity, of an interesting story to tell in terms of taste--keeps the Carl Reh Riesling from being a 90 point wine. That being said, this kind of deliciousness, along with such high potential for pairing with spicy Asian foods, at ten bucks a bottle? It's a MUST TRY!

S.A. Prüm "Essence" Riesling
Germany: Mosel River Valley
Riesling (white)
2009
87 pts
$13.00
Enjoyed dinner in Winter Park, FL with my dad, his wife Linda, and my sister Kim last night, at Ruth's Chris steak house. Not a steak guy, really, but this gave me the opportunity to test out a spicy Asian food-dry Riesling pairing, something I read about in Jay McInerney's book A Hedonist in the Cellar. I selected as my entree the large calamari appetizer, served at Ruth's Chris with a sweet & spicy Asian sauce, and as my wine, the Prum Essence Riesling. The citrus and sweetness in this German white are supposed to complement and balance the spiciness of Asian sauces and food. As it turns out, I like this wine a lot, but the pairing with this dish was just so-so. While the wine had a wonderful minerality to it and pleasing hints of lime--with a nice mouth feel and a slightly above average finish--this near dry/semi-sweet Riesling, so mineral driven, just didn't do enough to balance out the spices used on the calamari (could have used a bit more acidity, for my palette). I've since learned that the blue slate in the soil of this mid-valley estate accounts for the nice minerality. Still, on it's own or served with seafood or fish sans Asian spices, I think this is a good, solid semi-dry Riesling at a reasonable price--and a wine I would certainly drink, again. Compared to the Polka Dot Riesling reviewed below, this is a 91 point wine. On its own, I give it 87...nice, but not a mind blower, either.

+RUN AWAY NOW+
Polka Dot Medium Dry Riesling
Germany: Pfalz
Riesling (white)
2006
75 pts
$10.00
Need to start with two realities here: first, just about everyone who's rated the Polka Dot Medium Dry Riesling likes it a lot--but not me. Second, this is the first Riesling I've rated officially, and I'm no expert on the specific characteristics of this varietal. Those points aside, here's my honest take.

The color of this wine is yellow straw (light, even sort of airy), and the bouquet offers pear and nectarine. The company claims apricot on the nose, as well, but I don't pick that up. It's a sweet smell dominated by those fruits. As for taste, it's very light in the mouth (I've read this is an expected characteristic of the varietal, however), and the sweetness of the fruit--opening with pear, then transitioning, rather awkwardly, to a longer nectarine flavor--is displeasing for my palette: just too much for a wine described as Medium Dry. I also pick up a secondary floral taste, but that flavor does not seem at all in harmony with the dominating, sweet fruit. And the length of this wine is below average, a disappearing act. Riesling is recognized as one of the most food-friendly wines in the world, and I can see how the sweetness (plus a bit of acidity) would complement certain spicy foods (especially Asian?), but I don't care for the mouth feel, dominant flavors, level of sweetness, balance, or finish on the Polka Dot Riesling. It's just not a wine I want to drink again.