New Here With A ? About Reislings

[cheeps]

Hi everyone. I just joined as I would like to learn more about wine and someone recommended this site to me. Please excuse any spelling errors, as I'm just beginning and not familiar with alot of the names. I recently bought The Wall Street Journal's 2004 guide to wine which was recommended to me as a good start to begin learning. I haven't started it yet, so I'll keep my questions to a minimum until I do. I know I like rieslings, sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, sharaz, and merlot, but I know nothing about differences between brands, years, etc. I just know I've had these types of wine and I liked what I had.

Anyway, as a starting question, I was wondering about the differences in rieslings. I know I like rieslings, but I'm confused by what "spatlese" and "kabinett" means. I'm assuming kabinett is German for Cabernet? As I said, I know I like riesling but I've only ever bought one kind - Dr. Fischer. I bought a bottle and liked it, so I just stick to that brand. Some years it's good, some years it's not so good, but I don't know enough to choose anything else. That's another thing I'm confused about. I know a ton of things influence the wine - how much rain fell, what the weather was, etc. so year to year things change. But how do you know this is a good year and that is a bad year? Is it all trial and error? How do you know a particular wine won't be good to drink for another 2 years, or 5 years or even 10 years?

I'll stop now before I post another 15 questions lol!! I meant to just ask about the rieslings! TIA!

Lisa

[This message has been edited by cheeps (edited 01-07-2004).]