Saying Goodbye to the 2011 Summer of Riesling

Final Summer of Riesling Thoughts & Link Roundup

My Summer of Riesling started right after my return from the Wine Bloggers Conference in Virginia in July. Once or twice a week I tasted, paired and shared Rieslings from all over. I tasted products from Europe, the US West Coast and several local/regional wines that came from Idaho, Ohio, Michigan, Connecticut, New York and New Hampshire.

I had hoped to finish up this week with an Ice Wine from Inniskillin but the box contained the wrong product, an Ice Wine made from Vidal instead! Not to worry, I slotted in the last bottle of a Riesling Ice Wine style wine I made in 2009. It has been a year since I had had some and it was improved once again. Intensely sweet with good acid to balance, the concentrated fruit flavors are wrapped with something I have always said was a little wild. I’m sad to see it gone, but it did make for a sweet finish.

I didn’t complete my regional quest either, and did not source Rieslings from VT, ME, RI and MA. I’ll get back to this eventually.

A few wine tasting notes never made it into any of the posts included:

Trimbach 2007 Riesling – I found this wine to be a bit too dry, maybe losing something with age. It still tasted good flavor-wise, but was more dry than I had recalled from prior tastings.

Chamard 2011 Riesling – the fruit was sourced from the Finger Lakes in 2010 for their first ever Riesling. It had the signature minerality in the nose with peach, green apple and citrus in the nose and mouth. It was refreshing but might have suffered from a lack of acid. From Connecticut.

Here is a link round-up of all of my Summer of Riesling posts:

• Kicking Off the Summer of Riesling
• Summer of Riesling Summer Party
• Everyday Rieslings to Celebrate the Summer of Riesling
• Two for Dessert – Summer of Riesling
• Chicken & Squash Curry with Riesling
• Taste of the Other 46 for the Summer of Riesling
• Summer of Riesling Pairing – Chilean Sea Bass
• Finger Lakes Riesling

Riesling Hour Tasting Notes

Last night I participated in the Riesling Hour event to usher in the 2010 Rieslings from the Finger Lakes region. I received a selection of six wines from the 30 participating wineries. One of the most interesting things that came out of my participation in the event was the sharing of thoughts on wines with others who received something different. I think it enhanced the conversation. I opened 4 of the bottles, leaving two I had on my recent trip in the cellar for another day. Two were dry, one was semi-dry and one was medium-sweet.

Anthony Road 2010 Dry – I ran out of time on my trip and didn’t end up getting to Anthony Road so I was very excited to get this bottle for the Twitter tasting. I found intense minerality in the nose with some wet stone & citrus on the palate. I also got hints of green apple and melon rind. I didn’t find this wine to be as good others I recently tried and was left wondering if the 2010 vintage was a bad first taste. I’ll be returning to the region soon and Anthony Road is on my list to visit.

Swedish Hill 2010 Dry – Orange and wet stone aromas. Hints of sweetness in the nose, although it drinks dry. Peach with a bit of tropicality on the palate. The acidity was pretty healthy and made me think of some of the 2009’s recently tasted. This was my favorite of the night.

Atwater Semi-Dry 2010 – The nose on this wine was the most pronounced of the four I tasted. Peaches and tropical fruits were clear and big. The flavors were consistent. This wine drinks sweet, but the finish has a drying quality to it that buffered the sweetness very well. At 10.8% ABV this wine could be a dangerous casual drinker!

Lakewood Medium-Sweet2010 – Saving the sweetest for last my palate was primed for something with a bit more sugar. I picked up pear and citrus both in nose and mouth. The wine is sweet, but again has enough acidity to prevent it from tasting flat or too sweet.

Digging Deeper into the Finger Lakes Riesling Story

During the Riesling Hour TweetChat Richard Auffrey, aka thePassionate Foodie (@RichardPF), asked a characteristically probing question, and one that got me thinking. The question was:

"What does #FLXWine Riesling offer, if anything, that you cannot find in Alsatian/German Rieslings? #RieslingHour"

There was a bit of protest about the comparison being made in the question, and I get that. The Finger Lakes isn’t Germany. But what if the question isn’t meant in a punitive or negative way? I defend the question with the idea that digging a little deeper is the hallmark of best writers in this business. Richard consistently demonstrates this, giving me and others something to aspire to.

Austria, France and Germany are the gold standard for Riesling in the world and have a long history backing up their wines. Most winemakers of Riesling know this and inevitably use the examples from these countries as guide, consciously or not.

This is not an easy question to answer because most of the assertions I came up with are of subjective value. There is no discrete answer.

Here’s my opinion on what the Finger Lakes Rieslings offer and why we should pay attention:

1. For a young winemaking region a lot has been accomplished in 50 years. The quality presented today is at a premium to the time required to get there, and is only increasing. More time equals more quality, and the best producers are rising to the top.
2. The very best Rieslings from the Finger Lakes rival the quality of some of the foreign competition. I said some, and the low quality stuff is easy to beat. This isn’t apples to apples so this comparison breaks down easily. But give it time.
3. It is a domestic product so we get to wave the stars and stripes when we drink it. Some people don’t care about this, but I do. In my experience the Rieslings from the Finger Lakes are better than all of the cheap, high-volume domestic offerings I’ve tasted so we’ve got a gem here to promote.
4. It’s a local/regional product for many consumers whose patronage supports small American businesses. Being local can also mean it is greener because it has to travel shorter distances to get to a happy consumer. Because of the increasing quality there is the two-for-one benefit of supporting the small businesses AND getting a great drink! I try to drink local in New England and with greater diversity in quality it isn’t as easy for me to get that same benefit. I felt it firsthand on a recent trip to the Finger Lakes and it got me jazzed up!

I look forward to other opinions on this topic, I am sure I will learn something!

Recent Finger Lakes Posts from Blogging Friends

The 2010 Finger Lakes Rieslings Have Been Released – LifeOfVines blog by Marie Payton

Riesling Hour – 2010 Finger Lakes Rieslings – WiningWays blog by Lorie Perrone

What to Know About 2010 Finger Lakes Rieslings – New York Cork Report by Evan Dawson

Welcoming the New Season

With summer behind us Riesling won’t be as frequent of a friend in my blog as it has been, but only because there is room here for everyone!

Upcoming highlights include two Harvest & Pumpkin beer shootouts, an all New England wine tasting and food & wine pairings befitting the cooler weather.

Cheers!

Jason

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Two for Dessert – Summer of Riesling

During my collection phase to celebrate the 2011 Summer of Riesling I found several ice wine style Rieslings that were new to me and thus offered unknown potential enjoyment. I've enjoyed two of them so far, treating them as dessert without any accompaniment.

For me late-harvest, dessert and ice wine style Rieslings are the most vibrant example of what you can do with the grape. Something about the concentration of the aromas and flavors resonates profoundly with me.

Koenig 2009 Riesling Ice Wine

This wine has the color of honey with pungent ripe and ripening fruit aromas. The fruit aromas are intertwined with honey and spices which are joined on the palate by dried fruits and a great balance of acidity and sweetness. It has a smooth, clean finish that lingers but not to extremes.

Riesling Ice Wine from Idaho can hang with dessert wines from many other areas based on my experience. This wine is polished with pronounced aromas, flavors and some wild nuances that make great North American dessert Rieslings shine.

I ordered this wine directly from the winery with a couple of other styles, and it retails for $20 per bottle. That makes it good performer for dessert wines and an average performer overall.

Pacific Rim Vin de Glaciere

Hailing from Washington State this wine is a solid pleaser with a very specific fruit focus. Oranges. This wine is golden/orange in color, has aromas of citrus in the nose and flavors of dried oranges on the palate. It is hyper-orange, but in a balanced way where enjoyment of it isn’t hard. The acidity that rides along the finish does a fine job of leaving a clean exit. I bought this at a state liquor store for $18. Again a good performer in the dessert wine category.

Both of these wines would make fine ends to an evening with cheese, dessert or on their own. You have to like dessert wines to enjoy these, but I am hoping if you’ve read this far that you would be in that group.

And with that my 2011 Summer of Riesling continues. The search for Rieslings from the remaining New England states has seen some setbacks with my recent schedule, but with about a month to go until the technical end of summer, I’ve got time. I am expecting several additional events, including another regional Riesling tasting (New England wines) with my family in a couple of weeks, several more food and wine pairings, two more selections from Europe; capping it all off with another tasting of the exceptional ice wine from Inniskillin, a product of Canada.

Cheers!

Jason

Frank Cooked It Up And We Paired It Up!

( Kath and I enjoying the party. )

Kathy Nelson, the owner of Salon Outlooks in Manchester, definitely knows how to plan a fun event. Combine the talents of two of her clients and the energy of quite a few others and what do you get? A great Italian cooking demonstration and a few good food and wine pairings.

On Friday November 12th Frank Carpentino walked us through a selection of Italian dishes using his philosophy of “no recipes”. Margot and I were given a rough idea of the ingredients that would be in the dishes and were challenged to recommend wines to pair with them. Our challenge included making recommendations that would be available from the local liquor store as well as several from our own collection.

We kept with the Italian theme and recommended the following wines available locally:

• Folonari Soave 2008 - very light body, subtle fruitiness, very dry & crisp
• Ruffino Chianti Classico Aziano 2007 - ripe fruit, earth, very complex for a lighter red
• Martini & Rossi Asti NV - sweet sparkler with great fruit flavors

We added the following wines from the Ancient Fire collection:

• 2009 Pinot Grigio - medium bodied, dry, grilled pear/melon flavors
• 2008 Amarone - full bodied, red fruit and oak, unique aromas
• 2009 Riesling Ice Wine (we don’t have any homemade Italian dessert wine)

Frank has an impressive list of food accomplishments and he easily kept the attention of the audience as he prepared his meals.

( A solid base for a great dish! )

Some of his credits are:

• The development and instruction of a Basic Cooking Program as part of the Derry Adult Education Program.
• The development & instruction of a basic cooking program for school age children
• Prior Head Cook for a Middle School with a population of over 1,000
• Cook for Passaconaway Country Club & Hidden Creek Country Club

Frank started with a salad dressed with an oil and vinegar based dressing. I had hoped the Soave might work here but alas it was too light. The Pinot Grigio worked better, but the dressing did have some character and a good wine pairing would be tough.

Moving from salad to the main course Frank prepared pasta and fresh vegetables, which consisted of onions, peppers, mushrooms and broccoli in a light sauce of tomatoes, butter and white wine. Several of us found the Pinot Grigio worked better than the Chianti making my initial recommendation the winner. The score is all tied up!

The next dish was Frank’s North End Pasta, a tomato based sauce with sausage, onions, peppers and garlic over fettuccini. For this dish either of the red wines would work and which one exactly would be the best would depend on individual taste. The Amarone was the winner creating a nice bump for us coming from the homemade collection.

A shrimp scampi pasta dish came out next. My initial pairing advice was toward the white wines and the Soave primarily. It worked and people agreed. Score one more!

The last dish was chicken, vegetables in a rose (white and red wine) sauce. I didn’t actually eat this one because I was too busy serving wine. I think both of the whites and the Chianti were pairings people enjoyed, but I wouldn’t declare a win here since I didn’t work hard enough on it.

At this point everyone was feeling pretty full, but there was one last dish. Dessert. Cannoli to boot. Frank enlisted help from the audience to get these made and I prepared the ice wine and Asti for accompaniment. Both wines paired well with the lightly sweet dessert, but I think folks enjoyed the wines more on their own. Points for everyone.

This was a hugely rewarding experience for Margot and I. We got another chance to try our hand at food and wine pairing and in the process we created a bunch of smiles. Frank was commanding in the kitchen, with his passion and energy showing through.

Renee thanked us profusely for introducing her to Amarone, a style of wine she had yet to have enjoyed. We received other feedback which was truly humbling. We make wine at home for fun and always enjoy the fact that it brings others happiness when we share it.

Food and beverage pairing is a combination of art and science. I am always willing to to be wrong as long as I learn something in the process. Tonight I did OK, and learned that salad dressing can be a formidable adversary and that the the sauce of an Italian dish really makes the difference, almost without regard to whatever else is in the dish.

(The Outlooks crew with food and wine smiles! )

Cheers!

--Jason