Riesling, Mein Riesling

1 Riesling Why

BACKGROUND: It was a hot summer day in Vermont and I was asked to work a wine tasting for Massanois Imports  at Shelburne Farms. Happily I agreed and was lucky to meet Amy Ezrin, the senior vice president of the New York branch of the company. After a firestorm rundown of the wines, I began pouring. By the end of the tasting and after a whirlwind of activity attended by most managers involved with the service industry in Burlington, Vt., we were finished. Amy graciously gave me a couple of bottles of wine for volunteering my time and we parted ways after a big hug and hearty laughs.

One of those bottles was the 2015 Karthäuserhof Riesling Trocken. Trocken translates to "dry" in English, a good indication that the wine you will consumer will not be full of residual sugar.  

While Gertrude Stein's saying, "a rose is a rose is a rose" may be applied to the laws of naming, it cannot be applied to wine. I tried to tell myself that I didn't like the grape variety Riesling. I told myself it was sweet, viscous, smelled like petrol and my savory pallet would turn it away like it was an ex lover. From the shadows of my mind, Yoda made a cameo to inform me, "how wrong you are". I forgot how to be open to the experience of trying something new and drop my preconceived notions. As we get older our tastes change, so why wouldn't our pallets?

LATER THAT EVENING: Taking the foil off is as hard as it is to take the cork out. Nose of lime, brown sugar and petrol. The best ever in the compound yard on a late summer eve with an alley cat. The wine draws peoples of all different tastes together. If you're with family, if you're with unknowns, this wine is something unexpected. The alley kitty loitering about has no idea how this lemongrass smushed and mottled into a stone got into this bottle of wine. The acidity of Boz Scaggs, top 20 records produced by a Caucasian person. The long swan neck of the Mosel valley pouring a barely white mix. Scruffalufagus states: "Hahaha I'm going to bed. Do I have a question to answer?" 

The Carthusian monks never had it so good. A blending of sexes on an autumnal equinox that shook their knee on the half moon.  All the squid rose to taste it; all the starfish came in haste. Still the alley cat lifts its tail in confusion of why it can all be so good. The bright acidity coming through because of heat retaining soils for a heat retaining kind of night. The basalt, made from volcanic activity holds the sun like firestone, the slate channeling water to the roots of the evening. Makes one want to lick a stone from the quaternary period, taste its dry mineral. Careful plantings of these vines on some of the steepest vineyards in the world are transferred into the bottle bringing us a thoughtful togetherness while we share it on a tightrope. Like a German violin maker this wine offers a precision unmatched by many.

HINDSIGHT: I realize the stream of consciousness writing may be alarming to some but at times all means necessary of communicating a feeling that something gives a person is what's gotta happen. Try this wine while you can, I heard they're changing winemakers soon. If you can find a bottle from 2015 and before, get after it.

In Burlington: Dedalus Wine on Battery Street may still have some bottles left.