Riesling Blind Tasting Results From KensWineGuide.com

We recently conducted a blind tasting of Riesling and Dessert wines.  In this post we will cover the Riesling results.  In addition to the blind tasting, we received several other Rieslings and did some non-blind tastings as well.  Two weeks after the blind tasting, we visited the Finger Lakes.  In the end, we were swimming in Riesling.  In my opinion, Riesling is the most under appreciated Noble grape, although Merlot is starting to challenge it on that front.  Dorthy Gaiter and John Brecher, weekly wine writers from the Wall Street Journal, recently wrote that wine writers like me make a regular plea for readers like you to try more Riesling.  I say why not?  The stuff is really good!  It is not all sweet like the stereotype.  If you want sweet, you can have sweet, but there is also dry and semi dry Riesling as well.  The Very Good ones are balanced and food friendly.   The WSJ quoted a Nielsen Co. report that said Riesling is the fastest growing white varietal in the US for the past 2 years.  That’s the good news.  The reality is that Riesling is still only 2% of total wines sales.  So drink up! We will give you some Very Good suggestions. 

We tried ten Rieslings blind.  We are recommending six of them as Very Good or better.  Our winner scored 90 points or Very Good +.  Which wine won?  It was the Dr. Loosen 2006 “Ürziger Würzgarten Spätlese” $32.  This full bodied wine is quite viscous, creamy, nicely balanced, with delicious sweet lemon iced tea like flavors.  It was clearly our favorite option in this tasting.

Our second place wine was the Willamette Valley Vineyards 2007 Riesling for $12.  This wine scored an 88.25.  It was medium bodied, racy, round, a bit spritzy, with a complex array of flavors including lemon lime and pineapple with hints of apple. The finish is refreshing.  This wine is very versatile and would pair well with many foods.

The rest of our recommendations are as follows:

#3 Johannishof Riesling 2006 “Rüdesheimer Berg Rottland Spätlese” (Rheingau, Germany) $28 (87.75)

#4 Dr. Loosen 2007 Riesling “Dr. L QbA”(Mosel, Germany) $12 (87.5)

#5 Flying Fish 2007 Riesling (Columbia Valley, WA) $13 (87.0)

#6 Clean Slate 2007 Riesling “QbA”(Mosel, Germany) $12 (87.0)

In our Non Blind tastings several wines stood out as winners.  The first was the Joh Jos Christoffel Erben 2006 “Ürziger Würzgarten Kabinett” $28.  This wine is awesome.  We scored this wine Very Good+.  It is brisk, very round, very refreshing, with full palate coverage. This wine comes alive in your mouth. 

From our Finger Lakes visit we are also recommending some Rieslings that were quite impressive.  A new producer we discovered was Atwater.  We were quite impressed with their 2006 Riesling $17.  We scored this wine Very Good.  At the Friday Night reception at the 2008 Golden Nose Awards in the Finger Lakes, our favorite wine was the Anthony Road 2006 Semi Dry Riesling $16.   At the main event, we were also very impressed with the Lakewood 2007 Riesling $17.  This impressive wine won a Double Gold metal at the 2008 Golden Nose Awards.  We were equally impressed and scored this wine as Very Good +.  It is nicely balanced and displays nice sweet flavors of lemon with a touch of lime.  Another Gold metal winner was the Hosmer 2007 “Estate Grown” Riesling $12.  We scored this wine Very Good and this is the second vintage in a row we have recommended this Cayuga Lake wine. 

At our mini tasting, we were quite enamored with this entry from California.  The Ventana Vineyards 2006 Riesling $16 was well liked by all the tasters.  We scored this wine 89 points or Very Good.

We also separated out the “Dry” Rieslings and did a mini tasting of them.  The thing I like most about “Dry Riesling” is how food friendly they are.  These were our favorites. From Down Under, the Larry Cherubino 2007 “The Yard Whispering Hill Vineyard” Riesling $40 was our favorite.  This wine is very food friendly.  It is bone dry with a flavor profile full of minerality and some lime notes as well.   From the Finger Lakes, one of my favorite “Dry” Rieslings was the Atwater 2006 “Dry Riesling” $18.  We scored this wine an 89 Very Good.  This wine is balanced, easy to drink, and has lemon-lime like flavors with some mineral like notes.  You should seek out this producer.  From Germany one of our favorites was the Barth Estate 2005 “Charta” Riesling $26.  This wine is off-dry, balanced, slightly tart, and displays nice quince and lime like flavors with noticeable mineral notes. This is a very nice food wine.  We scored it Very Good.

Finally, we have two other Rieslings worth noting.  Our favorite Riesling from the 2008 Boston Wine Expo was the St. Urbans Hof 2006 “Ockfener Bockstein Spätlese” Riesling $22.  This full bodied wine is well balanced, creamy, viscous, and displays citrus like flavors of pineapple along with some minerality. It would pair perfectly with a seafood casserole.  The other wine of interest is the 2006 Château Ste. Michelle “Eroica” Riesling $22.  This wine is a consistent winner every year.  We have had this wine on a number occasions over the last few months.  It is a prefect food wine which will pair very nicely with a seafood casserole or chicken with broccoli in a cream sauce.

In summary, as you can see we found many tasty Rieslings over the last few months.  If you have not had a Riesling recently, please give one of these wines a try.  This Noble grape does warrant more attention and will make your next meal special.  You can also certainly enjoy one of these gems chilled by the pool this summer.  For a complete list of all the Riesling we recommend, click here.  Cheers – Ken