Wannabe Wino

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear WBW, happy birthday to you! Today marks the 48th WBW, and thus the 4th birthday of the monthly wine blogging event created by Lenn of Lenndevours. Fittingly, Lenn is hosting this 48th edition of his brainchild and has chosen the theme "Back to your roots." By this, he meant to go back to when you first started drinking wine and pick up one of your first bottles again to re-taste now.

I thought about it, but I didn't want to. Like many others, my journey with alcohol in general started with the bottom of the barrel (no pun intended). I drank free beer (Natty Ice and Milwaukee's Best anyone), wine in a box (Dr. Franz, as we affectionately called it, was a good friend), and vodka out of a $7 handle (mmm, Granite State and Zhenka). I have no desire to go back to any of that, it was foul when I drank it then. So I thought a little longer, and contemplated going back to the first bottle of wine that made me turn away from whatever came in a big format bottle or a cheap box. And that was a bottle of 1999 Schmitt Sohne Riesling. It cost about $5-$6 a bottle at the time, and one of my very dear friends showed up with a case of it one day.

I'd never had a Riesling. I didn't know what Riesling was. But I knew I loved it. And from that day on, I bought wine for the sake of trying new things. I stocked my college mini fridge with random bottles that I picked up at the state-controlled liquor store and went for flights of wine with my friends at the one restaurant with a decent wine selection in town. I stayed mostly in the white wine arena for a while, like many new wine lovers, as it seemed an easier transition and red wine scared me a bit. Now, I also didn't want to go back and drink the Schmitt Sohne again. I've had it fairly recently. Maybe it's me or maybe it's the wine, but it's not what I remember.

Instead, I decided to to search my local stores for a bargain Riesling and go back to the grape and country that started my affair with wine. In that vein, I managed to located a bottle of Lucashof 2007 Pfalz Riesling from Germany. I picked it up at Grape and Bean, a new, to me, wine shop in Old Town Alexandria for $14.50, it clocked in at 11% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.

Surprisingly, I don't drink much Riesling anymore. It could be because I get most of my wine from California and not many CA producers grow Riesling, or it could be because I drink a lot more red wine now than I used to, or it could just be that the stores I frequent don't carry a lot of Riesling (very true, my first shop didn't have a single bottle and the 2nd stop had 3.) But I really should, because each time I open a bottle of Riesling, I'm reminded of why I began to love wine.

The Lucashof showed honey, stone, apricots, lemon, and a beautiful flowery citrus on the nose. I could, as is the case with several wines I've consumed recently, almost smell the acidity, the structure that was going to be in the glass. In the mouth, more honey, peach, lemon, citrus, honey suckle, very dry fruit. It was delightfully light, and almost sprightly in the mouth. It brought back memories of the intrigue I found in my first glass of Riesling, a promise of how good wine could be.

Though of course, part of the experience in drinking my first Riesling was the company in which I drank it. I remember all those days fondly with my best friends from college, lazy days with no responsibility and the only pressing question of the day being what we would do that night. And really, that's what wine and Riesling are to me, a great memory, evoked with every glass. For this WBW, it didn't matter what Riesling I chose, or whether or not it was excellent, good, or just passable, it was the act of pulling out a bottle of Riesling and drinking it with good company, these days, my wonderful husband.

Many thanks to Lenn for the excellent theme, and for keeping WBW going all these years. I look forward to many more years of participating and I am excited to read what others chose for their wine.

It's that time of month again, WBW! The event really crept up on me this month, I was down to the wire, just heading out to pick up my bottle yesterday afternoon. Our host for this month is Tim of WineCast, who is pulling double duty this go around as he was also the host for the 2nd WBC, which also crept up on me and I didn't get around to finishing the book for this time. As always, the host is responsible for picking the theme for WBW, the brainchild of Lenn of Lenndevours, and posting the round-up after the event. Tim has chosen Old World Riesling for this month, asking us to pick up any bottle of Riesling from Germany, Austria, Alsace....and a couple of other places.

With that in mind, I set out to find my Riesling. If I were writing this post for just a regular post, I'd have titled it "Old World Riesling with a New World Label." I don't normally go in for the eye-catching wine names/labels, and it actually wasn't the reason I purchased this bottle. The owner of my favorite wine shop recommended two bottles to me and said this one was a bit fruitier than the other one, so I went with it because Matt prefers whites that show a lot of fruit.

The wine is a 2007 "Diva" Riesling from Germany. The producer is Gunderloch and it's a Rheinhessen Riesling Spatlese, which means the grapes are "late harvested" by allowing them to ripen for an extra week or more. It's the second level of quality on the scale of Rieslings produced in Germany. The bottle cost me $24.99 at the Winery in Old Town Alexandria, had a screw-cap closure, and clocked in at 9.5% alcohol by volume.

The nose was reserved, but gave up some lemon, peach, tropical fruit, and minerals. In the mouth this wine was fantastic. I can only describe it as delicate fruit flavors that dance over your tongue with an almost prickly feeling for your taste buds. Particularly I found peach, lots of peach, some tropical fruit, and honey all over the palate.

The wine was smooth, and glass by glass just disappeared in our house without a thought. It was drinking so well, and had wonderful acidity and backbone holding it together. It tasted like really delicious candy and would serve very well as a dessert in and of itself. I served it with baked chicken, broccoli, and homemade applesauce, and the food just overpowered the delicate flavors of the wine. I would say serve this as an apertif or a dessert, or perhaps with a very a cheese tray that wouldn't dominate the wine. I highly recommend this bottle, it's one of the best whites we've had recently.

Thanks to Tim for hosting, and I will be sure to alert you to the round-up when it's posted!

I've hardly had any real Eiswein in my time as a wino, so I was very excited to taste a few different bottles over the Christmas holiday. The first was from Canada, and very good, however, this one from Germany took the prize.

The wine was a 2002 P.J. Vlackenberg Worms Au Rhein Rheinhessen Qualitatswein mit Pradikat Madonna Eiswein. (Phew, that was quite the mouthful.) My dad bought this at MV Wine and Spirit in Madison, CT, so I don't really know the price point, but it appears to go for around $30 for 375 mL. It clocked in at 8.5% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure.

The first thing I noted on the wine was the golden honey color. On the nose, the aromas were honey, apricot, a touch of lemon. The nose smelled sweet with a bit of bite behind it. In the mouth, the wine showed honey, apricot, orange, and a a stony minerality.

The wine was delicious, sweet, as you would expect from an ice wine, but with great acidity and backbone. I got the wine when it was around 6 years old, but I could see how this could be one you could tuck away in your cellar for years to come.

I've heard a lot about Dr. Loosen Riesling over the years but just hadn't gotten around to trying it. While at my parents' house I found a bottle at the local wine shop and had to have it! I picked up this 2002 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Spatlese Riesling from the Mosel Saar Ruwer at MV Wines for $34. It clocked in at only 7.5% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure.

On the nose of the wine I found honey, flowers, minerals, petrol, and a stony note. In the mouth the wine was dominated by honey and apricots. The wine was smooth and drinking really well, but I could see how you could hang onto this one for years with the acidic structure.

This bottle may have been the hit of the Christmas holidays, although an Eiswein we had gave it a run for its money. I would definitely buy this wine again.

Matt accidentally opened the botttle in our wine fridge that holds a liter of wine. Generally I don't like to drink that much on a work night, but it's open and I don't have a cool wine preservation system (birthday gift perhaps) like huevos con vino so I guess we were stuck consuming it last night.

A 2004 Muller-Thurgau Halbtrocken from Germany. Screw-cap, cost $10.99 at the Curious Grape and is 12.5% alcohol by volume. This was a light, floral wine, with just a hint of citrus. I got mostly flowers, both on the nose and in the mouth. It's simply a very easy, not fancy or deep white table wine.

I served it with green beans, lemon-herb chicken and herbed fried potatoes. It was a decent match and it wasn't long before the bottle was gone, despite it being larger than normal.

Overall, simple, easy to drink, light table wine.

The dinner was a lemon-herb chicken sauteed in fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil that we got at Hop Kiln Winery and I am sad to say is now an empty bottle, and fresh rosemary. Green beans and biscuits with honey (yes, Pillsbury, I can't do everything yet!).

I normally think of white when I make poultry. Though I have heard the pinot noir is excellent for turkey and I will be offering a bottle on my Thanksgiving menu (more on T-day choices later). I decided to go with my first thought and pick a white. Since it was a really light sauce on the chicken and lemony, I decided a riesling would be a fair match.

This riesling came from our search for everyday wine. It's a 2005 Matheus Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Kabinett. German if you couldn't tell. Most of what I can find about this wine online is written in German, which isn't much help to me. We paid $14.99 for this bottle, but I found it for $12.95 here

Screw-cap closure, 10.5% alcohol by volume. A nice light wine for a nice light meal. However, the screw-cap was nearly impossible to open. We had to use a knife to cut around it in order to remove it. I smelled mostly honey flavors when I poured this bottle. Tasted like honey as well, with just a slight citrus/acidic note. It paired excellently with the lemon chicken and was very tasty to finish up after dinner.

Well done to the sales people at Unwined for selecting this for us. At the price and with these flavors, which my husband really loved, it will make a regular appearance at our table. Also, the low alcohol content makes this perfect in my opinion for a weekday wine....I can enjoy it and not worry about feeling any ill-effects.