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Celebrate Riesling!
I have to admit, I’m missing most of the grape holidays lately. While checking the Twitter feed today, I was surprised to find out that today we celebrate International Riesling Day. Considering the fact that I never wrote a post about Riesling Day, I couldn’t resist an opportunity to reminisce about my Riesling experiences.
Riesling is one of the 3 main white grape varieties – Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Riesling. Of course, there are lots more white grape varieties in the world, but in terms of plantings and production volumes, these three grapes are way ahead of all other white grapes. However, despite the “main variety” consideration, Riesling’s position in the wine world is rather peculiar.
Riesling is capable of a full range of expressions, from bone dry and acidic Rieslings of the Clare Valley in Australia to the dense and viscous late harvest Rieslings made in different parts of the world. Germany, which has about 38% of all Riesling plantings in the world, is typically associated with Riesling – however, there is hardly a wine-producing region in the world where Riesling wines are not made – Germany, Austria, Alsace, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, California, Washington, Oregon, New York – Riesling is literally produced everywhere. And yet walk into any wine store of your choosing – Riesling is typically relegated to the far corner of the store which almost nobody would visit. You can barely find any Riesling on the restaurant’s wine lists. And many consumers are often shy about their love for Riesling as it is almost shameful to be seen with a glass of Riesling in public.
I don’t fully understand the cause of this phenomenon. Germany’s overcomplicated labeling laws might play a role. The fact that it is very difficult to assess the level of sweetness of a bottle of Riesling also plays a role – put a few of the Kabinett Rieslings in the row and see how different the sweetness levels will be where you expect them all to be about the same.
But those of us who trust our own palate and are not afraid of being seen with a glass of Riesling in our hand are typically in for a treat. The everpresent hint of honey, maybe pears, white flowers, and honeysuckle, supported by the cleansing acidity, and hopefully my favorite, a hint of petrol make these wines an absolute delight in my book. Most of the Rieslings also age very well – to understand the pleasure of the 20-30 years old Riesling you simply need to taste one for yourself – the words are very limited in describing the pleasure.
Over the years, I had plenty of delicious Rieslings. And yet if you would ask about the most memorable ones, I would easily give you 3. First, Brooks Ara Riesling from Oregon, which I tasted during a few of the Wine Bloggers Conferences – a pure standout. My next choice would be Smith-Madrone Riesling, which is rather surprising coming from Spring Mountain District in Napa Valley in California – nobody would ever associate California with Riesling, and yet you have a live, delicious proof.
And then, of course, there are Clare Valley Rieslings from Australia. Grosset Polish Hill Riesling from Clare Valley might be a quintessential pleasure, with its high energy, brilliant acidity, intertwined with the fruit – another wine that needs to be tasted to believe it.
I have come across many other excellent renditions of Riesling, but the three I just mentioned are definitely my personal standouts.
What do you think of Rieslings? Do you have your favorite Rieslings which you care to share with everyone?
Happy Reisling Day!
An Evening With Friends – In Singapore
For years I had been following the Oz’s Travels blog, commenting from time to time on the great wine (and food) experiences described there. Over these years, we built a virtual friendship with Oz (Anthony), the author of that blog, with one recurrent theme “one day you will make it to Singapore, and then…”. As amazing as the life is, that “one day” actually happened about two months ago when my business travel finally brought me to Singapore.
Maybe you saw my very excited post about Gardens of Singapore – but the evening before I experienced all the gardens, I was able to meet, shake hands, and share a few (okay, more than a few) bottles with Oz and his friends.
Oz picked me up from the hotel with his friend Rob and we proceeded to the restaurant, where another Oz’s friend (also Rob), was already waiting for us. Then, there was food, wine, and scotch – but let’s take it all in steps.
First, the restaurant – newly open Garang Grill (a sequel to the already successful Garang Grill at another location). The restaurant allows guests to bring their own alcohol, which we took an advantage of – while restaurant provided glasses and decanters. During the course of our dinner, I had an opportunity to experience a variety of creative dishes. Skewers of sauteed foie gras were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Luncheon meat fries (yes! talk about creative!) were superb with delicious dipping sauce. I since made the same dish at home and everyone loved it. Crab rillette, steak – everything was delicious and tasty. Here is an account of our dinner – in pictures.
And then there was wine. What I love about Oz’s parties is the abundance of wine, and not just any wine, but nicely aged wine – and you know how much I admire the wine with a little (or not so little) age on it. Here is what went down:
1996 André Beaufort Champagne Grand Cru Ambonnay. Never had it and never heard of André Beaufort Champagne before. Meanwhile, this happens to be one of the oldest all-organic grape growers in Champagne. This 1996 was disgorged in 2014. The wine had great acidity, green apples, still perfect fizz, candied apples with a hint of cinnamon showing on the nose. Yeast showed up later. Excellent. That was a real treat.
2008 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling Clare Valley. Australian Riesling is not a simple wine. I remember trying young Australian Rieslings many years ago, and putting them into the category of “I never want to drink this again”. It takes a bit of time to understand the beauty of the wine devoid of any sweetness and instead offering in-your-face acidity and minerality. But once you turn the corner, this becomes the style you crave. This particular wine at hand was, in many ways, an encounter with the legend. You see, Clare Valley is one of the best regions for Australian Riesling. Polish Hill is one of the very best vineyards. And Jeffrey Grosset is a legendary producer, one of the best winemakers in the world. Now you add a bit of age, say, 10 years – and you almost get heaven on Earth – petrol on the nose, restrained palate, minerality through the roof, great acidity, just a pure delight in every sip.
1994 Bodegas Beronia Rioja Reserva. Behind damaged label was an excellent wine – still fresh, good fruit, good acidity, excellent. Still has time to evolve. Based on the color also still young – just starts showing age.
2005 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley. This was my contribution to our lineup. Jordan needs no introduction to the Cabernet Sauvignon wine lovers. This wine was very good, typical California Cab. The wine had an interesting amount of sweetness, more than I expected – as it showed no age, I would assume it still needs more time to evolve. I have one more bottle from the same vintage – will have to wait with that one for a bit.
2008 Standish Wine Company El Standito Proyecto Garnacha Tintorera Yecla DO. This is a Spanish wine, of course – produced by Standish Wines from Australia. Yecla is the best known for their Monastrell wines – this wine, however, was made from the grape called Garnacha Tintorera, which is also known as Alicante Bouschet, which can produce massive, dense wines. This wine was no exception – excellent, restrained, good balance, good fruit, good acidity – and still in need 0f at least another 20 years to evolve.
2005 Dr. Loosen Erdner Prälat Riesling Auslese Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. You can’t finish such an evening without a dessert wine, can’t you? 13 years old Auslese by Dr. Losen – need I say more? The wine was amazing, great balance, a touch of candied plum, great acidity, fresh, simply superb.
This was the end of our dinner, but not the end of our evening. A short taxi ride took us to the unassuming building (well, it was dark, so maybe it is not as unassuming during the day) which happened to be a Rendezvous Hotel, one of the oldest in Singapore. After taking a flight of stairs up, we entered the room where my jaw literally hit the floor. The “room” was called The Auld Alliance – the scotch and whiskey bar (primarily) with more than 1,600 (!) different whiskeys available to taste and purchase. I never saw anything like that in my life, and the selection there was simply beyond words:
In addition to many whiskeys available by the glass, The Auld Association also offers a number of tasting flights – I had the one called “Smoke around the world” and it was definitely fun (I hope you don’t expect my tasting notes after 18 hours of non-stop travel and prior dinner with all the wines).
So this is my account of an amazing evening in Singapore. It was definitely a pleasure meeting Oz and his friends, and the whole evening was simply beyond expectations. Cheers!
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