Wine - German Rieslings

Durnstein, Austria

On Thursday evening I went to my Women's Wine Tasting Club (finewine.com) which I had not been to for the 2 previous months either because I was out of town or otherwise occupied (with what I cannot imagine!). Each month we sample a varietal which is usually paired with samples of food. This month the focus was  on German Rieslings; the food pairings included various Dim Sum tidbits.

I was introduced to good Rieslings on my visit to Austria in Spring 2005. However, in blindly purchasing different types of this white varietal upon returning to the States, I would often be disappointed because my selection was often much more sweet than I like. But I discovered at the tasting that the sweetness of Rieslings which I would not drink as a cocktail, is tempered beautifully by the spiciness of Asain dishes. I learned how to read German labels which, as you can imagine, is very helpful in selecting a German wine. Three examples and their remedial interpretations below them (I left my notes on the table I think...after six samples and a few more second round samples, I guess you can understand why. So these notes are from my feeble memory.)

 

 

In reading the label above...starting at the top:

• Urziger Wurzgarten is the name of the town (Urziger, towns often end in "-er") and vineyard (Wurzgarten)
• Riesling is the variety of grape and Kabinett indicates the season of harvest with Kabinett being an early harvest (In Germany the harvest times are government regulated. Like all wines,the longer that the grapes stay on the vine, the sweeter they become. So generally, if you like a dryer Riesling, look for a Kabinett. For a sweeter wine, look for Spatlese on the label.)
• Weingut Karl Erbes - the wine producer
• Mosel is the wine region and, frankly, I don't have a clue about the other two words, I was probably chatting it up  :-)

In conclusion, the fruitiness and minerality of Rieslings make them a very nice choice for a refreshing summer wine. Prost! (Cheers)

Comments

[Becca]

Thanks for the fun refresher course! I think I remember learning some of those things back when I was trying to become educated about wine before giving up and just drinking lots of it! It's true that the sweeter wines, which I normally don't like, go very well with spicy and Asian foods. I especially like Gewurtztraminer (sp?) with Asian foods.

So, how much do you know about French Bordeaux?

And, breathtakingly beautiful photo!

[Lynn]

What a useful blog, who is this brilliant woman?

Remember the supper and the san gria? Well, I got it into my bony head to get some for home, to have with dinner. So, at the Jewel, in the limited wine section, the only sangria to be found was Gallo and it was a gallon. That was it. So, I got a smaller bottle of a cafe zinfandel and have been working on that this week. A small tea cup after supper. (Should I try merlot?) There is a wine store next to the white hen pantry I frequent for deli, maybe I should stop in and peruse the sangria selection there? I also like the little straw girdle the bottles have, cool. My comfort level around a liquor store is very, very low. Wish me luck. Will celebrate with Sangria when I sell the house!
Lynnie

[yolanda]

This photo is beautiful .

[Paris Parfait]

In your honor, we had German Riesling tonight, with a spicy Thai pork dish with lime. Wonderful! (Actually it was a coincidence; I'm reading your post after dinner). And your photo is gorgeous!

[jennifer]

OMG - that photo is breathtaking! I usually find Reislings too sweet (that was what I liked when I first starting to drink wine) Now I like Reds... hmmmm, maybe I should give them another chance. (I don't know anything about wine - except I like it ;)