History of Riesling

[Randy Caparoso]

I like that we always agree to disagree, Foodie. As you know, hundreds -- no, thousands -- of people eat in our restaurants everynight. I have personally conducted countless consumer wine dinners, and staff tastings where we have compared California style Chardonnays with, say, very fine Pinot Gris, Riesling, pink wines, sparklers, etc. What you find is very simple: wines like Chardonnay are great tasting, and they go great with food as much or more than other varietals.

It's very hard to convince people when they KNOW this to be true. Americans, as many of you may think, really are not that dumb. Of course, it would be wonderful if they could appreciate more variety. We're all working on that. But I just can't buy the notion that there is something inherently wrong in a big, richly oaked Chardonnay. That's like saying consumers shouldn't like big, richly oaked Cabernets, soft and sumptuous Merlots, fine and delicate Pinot Noirs, light and sweet Rieslings, honking big Zinfandels, easy going White Zinfandels, etc., etc. They're ALL good things. Love, love, love.