Sumo Riesling

The steep slopes on the Rhine are a popular place to plant Riesling grapes

Our January 17^th tasting involved sampling 7 different brands of the popular and often mispronounced white wine known as Riesling.  So, to start off, the correct pronunciation is “Reesling” (as in Trevor Rees)…..versus “Reezling”, which many people tend to say.  We also learned a little bit about the background of Riesling and the process of producing this type of wine.  Turns out Riesling is an Aromatic (unlike it’s more popular white wine cousin Chardonay), it is usually not oaked, and the general approach used is to create a product that has a crisp and fruity flavor (with many subtle variations).  There are a variety of methods used to create these flavors, most of which revolve around how the wine maker manages the sugar levels (early halting of fermentation processes and harvesting late to reap higher sugar-content grapes) and the aging process (it’s one of the wines most suitable for aging…fun fact: only 10% of wines are suitable for or need aging).  One rule of thumb on alcohol content: 16-17 grams of sugar converts to 1% alcohol (i think on a per Liter basis, not positive).  Keep reading for a quick breakdown of the seven varieties we sampled (and please note all prices are in $NZ).

Gustav Lorentz Riesling 2008 (Alsace, France) $30

Appearance:  Light Gold

Nose:  Citrus, hints of green apple, medium intensity

Palate:  Dry, high acidity, light body, fruity

-        This is an old world Riesling (meaning it is from Europe), it was pretty acidic and the general consensus was not overly appealing.  I agreed and gave it a frown face rating on the Thelander Scale for rating wine.

Felton Road Riesling 2009 (Central Otago, NZ) $40

Appearance:  Light Gold (you may start to see a trend here)

Nose:  Light, not acidic, (Tim and I thought we smelled cherry, but our professor turned her nose up at that one)

Palate:  Sweet, light acidity, medium body, fruity, peachy

-        This one was received well and got a smily face rating.  Might have been my favorite

Doctor’s Riesling 2010 (Marlborough, NZ) $26

Appearance:  Clear, almost like water

Nose:  Sweet, light acidic, peachy (another common adjective I used), fruity

Palate:  Little Peachy, citrus, acidic, green apple

-        I noted that this one tasted much like it smelled (not sure what to make of that)…..was well received and managed to get a smily face rating

Riverby Estate Nobel Riesling 2009 (Marlborough, NZ) $26

Appearance:  Light yellow (darkest of all the wines we tried)

Nose:  Pronounced intensity, smelled like a can of fruit

Palate:  VERY SWEET, honey, full body, syrup

-        This one turned out to be a dessert wine, which made sense because it was insanely sweet.  Overall, I liked it and would recommend it.  Smily faces all around.

Valli Old Vine Riesling 2010 (Central Otago, NZ) $30

Appearance:  Very light, almost watery

Nose:  Light, little acidic, grapefruit

Palate:  Grapefruit, HIGH acidity, tart

-        Apparently this one needs to be aged longer, because it SUCKED.  Way too acidic and by far the worst we tried.  Triple frown face with 5 exclamation points

Felton Road Block 1 Riesling 2006 (Central Otago, NZ) $50

Appearance:  Light Gold

Nose:  Sweet, fruity

Palate:  Full body, pineapple, short length, well balanced, light acidity, medium sweetness

-        Another good variety that we tried.  Probably my second favorite, and got a big smily face a result.

Leaning Rock Rielsing 2003 (Central Otago, NZ) $27

Appearance:  Light Gold

Nose:  Light petrol, medium intensity

Palate:  Medium acidity, little sour, off-dry

-        Wasn’t crazy about this one, but couldn’t give is a full frown, so meet the only wine we tried to receive the rare neutral/apathetic face rating.

We found the tasting to be a great experience and I learned that I do actually enjoy certain white wines.  The big take-aways I got were the following:

-        Always ask how acidic a Riesling is before you order it….the more acidic, the less we liked it

-        Riesling has several peaks and valleys in quality over its lifetime (which is unlike Chardonnay, which only has one peak).  So, ask where a particular bottle is in terms of this cycle (easier said than done).

-        Price does not always indicate whether you will like it or not

That’s all I got.  Hope you are all now more educated in the world of Riesling consumption.

Cheers,

- Scott