Sweet Wine Club - July 2012
Learn the finer points to many of the wines we offer each month. Our club wines are expertly researched and selected for quality, value and uniqueness and every one has an interesting history. Here are some of the wines we are offering this month:
Friedrich Wilhelm Ritzman - Germany
2009 Riesling Pfalz
Friedrich Wilhelm Ritzman produces wines grown on the hills above the river Mosel. The small, picturesque village of Valwig, which is situated 3 km from the famous town of Cochem, is in the heart of the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer wine region. Valwig has only 350 inhabitants with a history dating back to the Romans. It is a typical Mosel wine-growing village with almost the entire population involved in the wine production. Bloom’s vineyards are in the best location for making excellent wine. The southern exposure of the vineyards maximizes the sunshine, which results in continued good quality wines. The hills on both sides of the Mosel are extremely steep and the soil conditions very poor, consequently, all the work in the vineyards is carried out by hand using methods largely unchanged since Roman times. The Ritzman Riesling is sourced from 100% Riesling grown in the Pfalz. The Pfalz region is just about as far as you can get from Berlin and still remain in Germany. Just over the border lies the famous French wine-producing region of Alsace. In fact, one major Pfalz wine producer has extensive vineyards on the other side of the French border. For the record Friedrich Wilhelm Ritzman sources their grapes from Germany. The 2009 is a drier-style that is bright, fruity and floral with crisp acidity and clean flavors of apple, pear and peach that compliment it's stony minerality and slightly earthy complexity .It serves well as an apéritif and matches a wide variety of foods, like lighter salad dishes, shellfish, cream sauces and also anything with a touch of spice. It could be a wonderful addition to any summer meal.
Hacienda Wine Cellars - Sonoma, California
2010 Riesling Clair de Lune
In the eyes of California's few remaining Riesling producers, Riesling is the variety people love to hate. The less consumers know about wine, these vintners say, the more likely they are to view Riesling as invariably sweet and terribly unfashionable and to fear that enjoying a glass would expose them as rubes. For most of the past 20 years, California Riesling has ceded the spotlight to the state's more glamorous white varieties, such as Chardonnay and the currently chic Pinot Grigio. But signs of a rebound have begun to emerge. Although many California wineries pulled out their Riesling vines in the 1990s, replacing them with more profitable varieties, acreage planted to Riesling has bounced back -- from just shy of 1,500 acres in 1997 to more than 2,300 acres today. Riesling contributes only minimally to the state's white wine lake -- California has 95,000 acres of Chardonnay -- but it's on the upswing. Hacienda Wine Cellars is riding along with trend to produce a benchmark California Riesling. This 2010 is made from 85.6% Riesling and 14.4% of various dry grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, etc.). This combination has produced a light yellow wine has strong hints of fruit and perfume. With a floral perfume-like taste, the wine ends with a smooth sweet finish. Try this Riesling with seafood (light & heavy), shellfish, pork, cheese, poultry, and desserts.
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