Chicago Law Blogger’s Random Post: All you (probably) need to know about Riesling
Every now and again even I have to stop writing about law and business and throw something a little more interesting against the wall. So here goes…
Riesling is a great wine. I say this in the sense that it both tastes good and, for me, is associated with many great memories with great friends.
I first learned to appreciate Riesling at a wine tasting. I was 18 and on a cruise with some friends. I never drank wine before (unless you count sneaking sips of box wine at family parties). Given my inexperience with wine, the tasting was torture….it probably didn’t help that we tasted 9 or 10 very different wines in the space of an hour (and I didn’t realize I could just spit out or not drink the wines I didn’t like).
Then came the Riesling. Oh the Riesling. It tasted like adult grape juice. So sweet, so tasty. From then on I was sold. I think over the course of the rest of the trip my friends and I drank all the Riesling they had on the boat. I think we may have been brushing our teeth with it for a time. In any event, I was sold.
So over the course of the last 10 years, I’ve learned enough about Riesling to (a) know what I’m doing when I order or buy it; and (b) fake my way through a conversation about it. So here’s some info, study hard:
1. Riesling is a German wine. It is also made in Australia, California, Timbucktoo and other areas of the world But trust me, Riesling is a German wine.
2. German Riesling is grown/made in a bunch of different growing regions in Germany, with most growing regions centered around the Rhine River. I have no idea how the different growing regions affect the taste of the wine. But people will be impressed if you know about the different Riesling growing regions (you also might find these names on the bottle)…here are a few buzzwords: Hessische Bergstrasse; Mittelrhein; Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (remember this one).
3. Here’s the most important thing: Riesling wine comes in various varieties, each of which may be dry, sweet, or really sweet. Most people know Riesling as a sweet wine, and I’d say even a “dry” Riesling is sweeter than what one thinks of as a “dry” wine…but some Rieslings can be on the more dry side and you have to watch out or you’ll be surprised.
4. Look out for these buzzwords associated with Riesling’s sweetness: (a) kabinett = least sweet/dry; (b) spatlese = a fair amount of sweetness; (c) auslese = really sweet; and (d) beerenauslese = really, really, really sweet (think dessert wine). If you really want to impress people, remember that the sweetness of the Riesling is directly related to the time of harvest. Generally speaking, the later the harvest, the sweeter the wine. I don’t know why…it’s chemistry.
5. Finally, Riesling is a great wine for wine virgins or people who just love the taste of wine coolers. The sweet stuff goes down easy and is pretty inexpensive. I also recommend Moscato for this purpose.
Here’s a great blog post written about Riesling.
Related posts:
Comments
One Response to “Chicago Law Blogger’s Random Post: All you (probably) need to know about Riesling”
Leave a Reply
I’m a big Moscota fan. It’s like alcoholic club soda.