Behind the Vines

Wine Blogging Wednesday 45: Riesling, Old World Style

by Farley on May 7th, 2008

Luckily, this month’s Wine Blogging Wenesday theme fit in nicely with my tasting group assignment. Old World Riesling, meet Alsace. Two for the price of one. However, when Tim from Winecast, our busy host (he just recapped Wine Book Club 2), does his round-up…he’ll find that my purchase is not one to recommend revisiting. In fact, our entire tasting, with the exception of the Muscat, was the most disappointing one we’ve had. So much so, that we decided to visit the Grand Crus of Alsace this week, in the hope of erasing some bad tastes from our mouths.

My bottle was from a supposedly good producer: a 2004 Domaines Schlumberger Riesling. On the nose, we found heavy petrol, peach, citrus, honeysuckle, and flint. The taste was more bruised apple, chalky oak, and very light acid. No one really liked this one, and I took it home to re-examine later but wasn’t in the mood. The Gewurztraminer from the same vintage and producer showed itself to exhibit a strange meatiness, flowers, and spray butter, along with nutmeg and ginger. Another Gewurz we tried (2005 Cave de Ribeauville) was heavier with thick honey, white flowers, lychee, and mushy apple. The 2006 Lucien Albrecht Pinot Gris showed lemon-lime minerality, then Pez, fake candy apple, and Pixie stix. Across the board, we found very light acid bordering on flabbiness.

I’ll be interested to see what other folks found and hope that they happened upon more success than we did. 

Image source: Farley Walker

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POSTED IN: Alsace, Riesling, Wine Blogging Wednesday