Sunday, October 4, 2009

feels like falling for the first wine





Let me start by saying that I have had a seriously intense and oftentimes depressing couple of weeks. First I sprained my ankle, leading to me getting sick with the flu (maybe even the you-know-what flu), followed by losing my voice completely ... which leads me up to now. I haven't been writing much about wine because, honestly, I haven't really been able to drink any until now.
Well, today I celebrated (mostly) getting over my illness by opening up a nice light bottle of Riesling to enjoy with some sauteed macadamia nut-crusted tofu and roasted red bell peppers in a nice Peanut Ginger sauce.
Oh, by the way, I've recently decided to go vegetarian for awhile. Yippee! So pretty much all the food pairings on here are going to be sans meat.




Anyway, the wine I picked was a non-vintage "American Riesling" Pacific Rim Dry Riesling ($8.99, Trader Joe's). Yes, it was a gutsy choice, but I'd heard many good things about it so I decided to give it a try. My boyfriend Julien didn't care for it much (he's not a fan of sweet whites, I think), but I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.
The nose on this wine has hints of sweet watermelon, green apple and a hint of pear and orange peel. Its color is a nice green-tinted yellow with a very light halo. It feels very soft and sweet in my mouth, yet it has a bit of spritz and a touch of acidity as well. It tastes very strongly of green apple, with some sweet lime as well. I also got a taste of grass with a touch of barnyard in the beginning. It drops out pretty smoothly in the end, but it does have a bit of bitter tart lingering that is not all that enjoyable. It's not a bad finish, per se, but it's not something I particularly expected from a Riesling. Was a little more reminiscent of a Pinot Grigio.
However, when push comes to shove, this wine was much better than I expected, and served as a nice pairing for the meal I had with it. I really did like it ... and I definitely could see myself having it again, under the right circumstances, i.e. with spicy food, like Thai cuisine or maybe some good veggie sushi.




I also had another mimosa breakfast this morning, this time with a bottle of Mumm Napa Cuvee M from (you guessed it) Napa Valley ($20, sale $13.95 at Safeway). It was an excellent choice, once that I would definitely enjoy again - a nice light Cuvee that complimented the orange juice exceptionally. Here's to another delicious mimosa weekend! Huzzah!

Speaking of Huzzah, here's a pic of me and my sister at the Renaissance Faire last week. I'm on the right, dressed as a gypsy belly dancer. Fun times! I love the Ren Faire. Oh, and good mead :).



4 comments:

  1. Dude, the veggie meal you described sounds like it's made of swoon. Although I've got to say: I accidentally buy a bottle of Pacific Rim riesling every few months, forgetting that I don't like it, and am always unpleasantly surprised.

    Also, love the Barenaked Ladies reference in your title!

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  2. Cant a good reisling just bring people out that depressing place? No? Just me? Yeah, a good glass of sweeter wine always makes me a tad less depressed

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  3. Hi Beth,

    The Dry Riesling is my wine. It is "Trocken" meaning dry for Germans. It is about 8 grams of sugar per liter of wine (that's pretty dry). This is the last vintage we made as an American wine, now we are all "Columbia Valley" appellation. Sounds like the wine was good with the meal though. Take care and thank you for trying one of my wines!

    Nicolas

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  4. Hi Nicolas,

    I'm so pleasantly surprised you stumbled across my blog! I really enjoyed trying your wine. If you ever have any samples you would like to send my way, just shoot me an email at jainomo@gmail.com.

    Beth

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