Rippin Good Rocks

You may think of Riesling (reezling if you please) as the light floral wines of the northwest that are very dry and somewhat insubstantial. Or you may think of the sticky sweet syrupy desert in a glass style wine. To be true and to quote from a book I am reading Reisling may be the grape that produces more different styles of one wine than any other…

If you are not a fan of Riesling, or if you are, I think you owe it to yourself to try a high quality German Reisling. Its all in the Rocks the grapes grown in; check out images of the Mosel online - I was told, and have done so. Impossibly steep slopes of slate and scree that look as if grapes should not grow there! Well I guess Germans must also believe, as the French, to create good wine the grapes must suffer. Certainly different than some of the lush, verdant vineyards of the northwest.

This aint your Mom’s Blue Nunn or other light white wine (sorry mom). A high quality Reisling can be aged 20 even 30 years. A strong Riesling from the Mosel can make you wax poetic or at least it did me…

Jos. Christoffel Jr. Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese 1996 – Okay so I put this to my nose, smelled petrol and kerosene at first and thought what the heck?… with some encouragement I smelled deeper and found golden fruit and some citrus lying underneath that strong smell. Better was the taste. Grapefruity lemon plus golden ripe apples, spices, and then plenty of slate and chalk. This is a long tasting wine too. The taste tumbled around in my mouth for a while and that was a good thing. It’s a medium strength, long bodied, dry white that has a lot of flavors and nuances to pick out. It certainly made a fan out of me of old world Rieslings. I definitely recommend you try to find a tasting of an aged moderate to dry German Riesling and see what it can do for you. $$ (29/bottle)

Jos. Christoffel Jr. Urziger Wurtzgarten Auslese 1988 - Okay more petrol and chemicals in the nose here... I think I am starting to like some earth or funk in the aroma of my wines. :)
Great depth to this wine. Definite citrus underlies the chemical smell. Green lithe sweetness like sweet clover, citrus, with an earthy spiciness were the primary flavors I picked out. However this felt a more dense, auspicious, and dry wine than the previous Riesling to me. Though it shared a good long finish of stone. Yum! is the best word that comes to mind and I cant wait to open a bottle with some fresh seafood. Its true I guess it’s all in the rocks – like excellent flavored pop rocks. Keep on poppin’! $$$ (45/bottle)