Wine for the Love of Riesling

Today is not for stinky-wee Madeira, today is for the joy of Riesling. Ahhh...Riesling. I think I'm in love. What a wonderful wine. We already tasted the French Rieslings and US Rieslings, all of which are delicious, but the German Rieslings are something special. Basically the German wine world is all about Riesling, so there are a lot of them. There is even a spectrum of six different ripeness categories (or really sugar at harvest) for Riesling.

All of the German Rieslings are lower in alcohol, more delicate in style, higher in acid and slightly sweeter than their French counterparts. They have this wonderful aroma of canned and dried fruits, white flowers, green and white tea, sometimes nectarines and peaches. They have a beautiful full mouth feel, almost oily but not in a bad, greasy way, more in a smooth way. And the sweetness beautifully balances the acid, while the acid balances the sweetness by never allowing the wine to taste cloying. These wines can be served in a variety of ways: with citrusy salads, seafood, foie gras, cheeses, spicy foods like Indian or asian, desserts, or just by themselves.

Since I have fallen completely in love, I am going to give you a couple of recommendations:

Willi Schaefer Riesling Graacher Domprobst Kabinett Mosel 2007 and Willi Schaefer Riesling Graacher Domprobst Spatlese Mosel 2007. As you can see from the names, these two Rieslings are very similar, apart from two words: Kabinett and Spatlese. These are two of the classifications I mentioned, and they refer to the level of sugar in the grapes at harvest. Kabinett is one level down from Spatlese, but the difference in sweetness can vary according to producer, year, etc.

The amazing thing is that the Spatlese and the Kabinett above smell totally different to each other, even considering that they are made by the same producer and from the same vintage. Where the Kabinett is lighter with more mineral, nectarine, honey, pear and vanilla, the Spatlese is more concentrated, with a bit of petroleum, canned pear, pineapple, green tea and match stick. Both of them are off dry, or slightly sweet. The Kabinett retails for $24, and the Spatlese retails for $40.

My favorite by far though was the Robert Weil Riesling Kiedrich Grafenberg Auslese Rheingau 1998. This is one of my beloved Botrytis wines, those wines that are made from grapes that have been affected by the "noble rot" or Botrytis. This wine has a lovely nose of honeysuckle, orange blossom, honey, canned fruit cocktail, white raspberry, dried apricots and dried peaches, with a lovely addition on the palate of poached pear and jasmine. It is a beautiful wine, though it unfortunately retails for $170.

A wine to dream about...