This spectacular Riesling is dry, not sweet
In the United States, Riesling is often associated with sweet wine. Not so with this excellent, bone-dry bottle.
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Trimbach Riesling, Alsace, France
$24.99
12.5% alcohol
PLCB Item #6625
Sale price through June 2, regularly $26.99
Are you looking for a ferociously dry white wine that will make your palate sit up and take notice? One whose piercing scent and lingering finish will shine a spotlight on your food and make (almost) anything you serve taste better than it did a moment before? Look no further than this spectacular, bone-dry riesling from one of the very best vintners of Alsace in northern France.
In the United States, riesling is often pigeonholed as a sweet wine – particularly when it comes in the tall, fluted bottles associated with German wines. This happens in part because so few other grapes can make sweet wines as well as riesling can, but this has led American wine drinkers to overlook and undervalue dry Rieslings. This is an injustice of the highest order since riesling is by any measure one of the top five wine grapes of all time and most of its very finest wines are not at all sweet, as with this classic example.
Alsace is a small region of northeastern France that is home to the city of Strasbourg and famous for its cool-climate wines. Bounded by the Rhine river to the east, which serves as the modern frontier between France and Germany, and the Vosges mountains to the west that separate Alsace from neighboring Lorraine, the region has been hotly contested territory for over 500 years, changing hands many times, which explains the region’s blend of German and French cultural heritage. Vintners in Alsace cultivate a similar palette of wine grapes as those found in Germany, like riesling, but get more ripeness in their warmer, drier zone. They also bring a distinctively French approach to their winemaking that prioritizes food-flattering traits over succulence on first sip. In the case of this example, the result is a midweight white wine of laser-like intensity and a near crystalline sharpness and resonance on the palate, that makes the mouth water instantly and needs salty foods to taste its best. Its stony minerality of scent and flavors of tart apples and white tea will please fans of white Burgundy and albariño, but is likely to prove disappointing for anyone looking for a simplistic, sweet-tart tipple.
Also available at:
Berkley Fine Wine & Spirits in Clarksboro, $18.97