I was very excited to finally get to Germany because I really like their rieslings. I have been having a hard time looking for a specific one, so I was very happy to see that we were going to learn different types of ripeness and hopefully maybe find a new favorite.
Region: Pfalz
Producer: Valckenburg Vintage: 2010
Grape Variety: Gerwurztraminer
This wine was yellow straw-like with hints of green and no viscocity because it is a young wine. The smell was different from other wines I have from the past. Instead of a lot of fruits, their were a lot of flower notes, such as orchids, orange blossoms and white tree flowers that you see in the spring in Central Park. The taste was light, more like the flower notes. This can be paired with spicy foods. This was a good start on my German adventure.
Region: Mosel
Producer: S. A Prum
Name: Essence
Grape Variety: Riesling Vintage: 2007
I was very excited to see this producer because this is the one that I can’t find. So to see it, I now know that I am not making it up. Professor Goodlad had asked to me analyze this wine. Was not ready for that but gave it a shot anyways. The color was canary yellow and translucent. It smelled a lot like apricots and pears. From others, they also pointed out pears and steel? When tasting it, I wanted it I wanted to be excited but unfortunately that did not happen. I tasted apricots, peaches, little tart and acidity. But there was nothing that would want me to go out and buy it. This wine can be paired with a greek salad, mussels or oysters. I would not give up on finding my wine, but know that I don’t like this wine.
Producer: Selbach-Oster Vintage 2010
Grape: Riesling Kabinet (ripeness)
Vineyard: Zeltinger Sonnenuhur
This wine was yellow with greenish hints to it. To the nose, it smelled like peaches and mandarin orange. From the taste, all I got was peaches and low in acidity, which is weird because from class I learned that Kabinet’s usually have high acidity. Maybe I have a higher tolerance for acid’s. I kind of liked this one because it was light and crisp. A good summer wine.
Region: Mosel
Producer: Jon Jos Prum (brother to S. A Prum) Vintage: 2009
Pradiskatswein (ripeness): spatlese
The color on this wine was pale yellow. The smell was different from the other rieslings. This one smelled like earth, must and dirt. To the taste though, it was peachy, with apricots and little acidity. Definitely not like the kabinet. This can be paired with sushi, Thai or Indian foods. I like this one as well because it was a little more fuller than the kabinet and can be paired with spicy foods.
Region: Mosel Vintage: 2007
Producer: Graff
Grape variety: Riesling
Pradiskatswein: Auslese
The color of this wine was yellow with hints of green which I though was a little weird because the wines that I have seen with hints of green are usually young wines. To the nose it had notes of honeysuckle and orchids. Upon tasting the wine, I thought it was very sweet, not fruity. Like someone dump a whole bunch of sugar in the batch. But underneath all the sugar are some peaches and apricots. This can be paired with bread and olive oil and oysters. This pairing I thought was good because the foods can cut through all that sugar.
I was happy to find other rieslings that won’t probably drive me crazy to find.
