Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Carefree Wine Tasting: Riesling


We are not wine experts.  My wife, Megan, and I enjoy drinking wine with good food.  There's no snobbery here.  It's a blind taste test to see what we really like.  We save our notes for future meals.  And it's all about having fun.  

How it works is simple.  We mark each wine glass and mix them to keep their identity secret.  Then we sip each to look for the smell, taste, texture, acidity, and tannins.  We then do it again with food suggestions we've found from various sources.  Finally, we rank our favorites with and without food ending with an overall winner.  

Frisk Prickly Riesling 2022 (https://www.friskwines.com/)
Nose/Smell: sweet and apple-like
Taste: light peach sweetness with a pop-like tartness
Texure/Mouthfeel: sharp, bubbly
Acid/Cheek: not acidic for Megan, but slightly so for Mike
Tannin/Gumdryness: slight-to-medium dryness
Color: cloudy yellow

Food
Spicy Shrimp: mellows the wine
Havarti Cheese: wine more sweet and bubbly flavored
Wheat Crackers: no change and stopped eating crackers as they all had same result
Spicy Nuts: wine has burst of flavor with smooth aftertaste
Prosciutto: wine too sweet
Apple Tart: wine has a burst of tartness that quickly disappears

Lamoreaux Landing Riesling: Semi-dry 2021 (https://www.lamoreauxwine.com/)
Nose/Smell: very ripe pear with woodsiness 
Taste: lightly tart fruit, ripe pear, and earthy minerality 
Texure/Mouthfeel: lightly smooth
Acid/Cheek: lightly tart
Tannin/Gumdryness: lightly dry
Color: light yellow/green

Food
Spicy Shrimp: overpowered and could only taste the spice
Havarti Cheese: good and balanced
Spicy Nuts: made wine smooth and creamy
Prosciutto: no good 
Apple Tart: terrible with a sour meat taste

Bota Box Riesling (https://www.botabox.com/)
Nose/Smell: light stone fruit with floral scent
Taste: soft stone fruit/pear.  not too sweet
Texure/Mouthfeel: very smooth and silky
Acid/Cheek: not acidic
Tannin/Gumdryness: little-to-no dryness
Color: very pale yellow, almost white
Notes: highest alcohol content

Food
Spicy Shrimp: Brought out shrimp flavor.  Mike thought it made the wine more flavorful
Havarti Cheese: made the wine sweeter and more tart
Spicy Nuts: wine was very smooth and flavorful
Prosciutto: wine was very sweet
Apple Tart: Megan thought it made wine taste salty and bad.  Mike thought it was "fine..."

Dr. Loosen "Dr. L" Riesling 2022 (https://loosenbrosusa.com/)
Nose/Smell: very light fruit, but almost no scent
Taste: minerally/earthy grapefruit.  Almost like Sweet-Tart candy
Texure/Mouthfeel: slightly rough bite with a smooth aftertaste
Acid/Cheek: slightly acidic tartness with light sourness
Tannin/Gumdryness: pretty dry in comparison
Color: very light yellow
Notes: lowest alcohol content.  Possibly harmed by American preservative requirements

Food
Spicy Shrimp: shrimp was more pungent, but wine had a better leveled out taste and sweetness
Havarti Cheese: wine more prickly and sweet
Spicy Nuts: Made wine too sweet and tart
Prosciutto: Best of the group, but still not great...
Apple Tart: Made wine salty and gross

BEST RIESLING ON ITS OWN:
#1 Bota Box Riesling
#2 Lamoreaux Landing Riesling: Semi-dry 2021
#3 (TIE) Dr. Loosen "Dr. L" Riesling 2022/Frisk Prickly Riesling 2022

BEST RIESLING WITH FOOD:
#1 Bota Box Riesling
#2 (TIE) Lamoreaux Landing Riesling: Semi-dry 2021/Frisk Prickly Riesling 2022
#3  Dr. Loosen "Dr. L" Riesling 2022
*note: next time, try pork instead of prosciutto.  Use crackers to clean palette.  And avoid apple tarts and similar desserts

BEST OVERALL RIESLING:
#1 Bota Box Riesling (note: with perfect score)
#2 Lamoreaux Landing Riesling: Semi-dry 2021
#3 Frisk Prickly Riesling 2022
#4  Dr. Loosen "Dr. L" Riesling 2022

The "distance" between 1st and 4th place was very small and we'd happily drink all of these wines again.  I hope this helps you find something you like.  Maybe you'll have a different experience.  Or you'll share one for us to try next time.  THANKS!


Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Center, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Lurie Children's Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold thousands of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.

No comments:

Post a Comment

If you like this, you might like...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...