Drink This Now! Lesson 5

 

After enjoying my first Riesling so much last week, I knew exactly which Drink This Now! experiment I had to try first. For this lesson, I was tasked with trying both a chilled and warm glass of both dry and sweet Rieslings, making for a total of four glasses. Since I was unable to procure any of the brands listed in the book, I made the following substitutions with the help of a Vintage Cellar employee.

Dry Riesling: Rieslingfreak No. 44 [Claire Valley, Australia; 2022]

Sweet Riesling: Peter Mertes - Platinum Riesling Spätlese [Germany; 2021]

Beginning with the chilled dry Riesling, I noticed that it was lighter in color than it's sweeter counterpart, and possessed a a green apple scent that I was not used to from my previous Riesling adventure. Another difference - the first sip felt super light! Breezy in a way that was different from last time, with a tinge of lime that made the entire experience like drinking a Corona. However, Corona does not possess the jasmine flavor that became notable later, so I think that Rieslingfreak has the edge in this battle.

Moving on to the darker-shaded chilled sweet Riesling, rather than getting any sort of fruity aroma on the first sniff, all I could smell was sugar. Just straight sweetness that fondly reminded me of last week's Kabinett. This extended to the initial sip, where the lucious sweetness dominated nearly everything else, although leaving a bit of room for some delicious honeysuckle. Add in the minerality and apricot tinge that developed further on, and you get a complex dessert that I certainly prefer to the dry version (though not quite as good as last week's).

With regards to the warm glasses, the conclusions were mostly the same for both dry and sweet. The color was identical to the chilled servings, but the smell was much more pronounced. Both possessed a greater sweetness in their room temperature form, to the point where the warm sweet wine was almost overbearing and drowned out any other tastes. The warm dry wine also didn't really work for me, as the sweetness was not a good counterpart to what the beverage was going for, and it exacerbated the gasoline flavors that were simply confusing to my tongue. In both cases, the chilled wine was superior.

All in all, it is crazy how many different tasting experiences can come from just one grape variety. All four of these servings created vastly different impressions, and really served to drive home just how much sway the winemaker has in developing the end product.