How should a Good Reisling taste

[pamelah148]

Hey guys, I bought a Reisling a week or so ago and it was way sweet!!! Kind of Syrupy. I had to sip little sips in order to drink it. The name I believe was Silver Lake. Do most Reislings taste this way or was this just another semi cheapy at 9.00 a bottle? This is the first I have tried.

[Thomas]

Pamelah,

The more you dig into wine you must keep this one thing in mind:

No wine is generically sweet, dry or otherwise; it depends on the style intended. I don't know the particular wine you had, but it must have been produced to be sweet. Riesling comes in many forms from bone dry to syrupy sweet and even as sparkling wine.



[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 02-08-2006).]

[Innkeeper]

Since Foodie used to both grow and make it, he knows of what he speaks. For another recent discussion on the grape, go to: http://www.wines.com/ubb2/Forum37/HTML/003599.html

[pamelah148]

Thanks foodie and Innkeeper, that's what I was wandering since it was my first. This one was good but it was alot sweeter than I expected it to be. Are the syrupy ones meant for sipping only or to be drank while eating specific food group or desserts.

P.S. Still a beginner.

[This message has been edited by pamelah148 (edited 02-08-2006).]

[Innkeeper]

The sweeter (est) ones can make nice dessert wines especially with desserts made with fruit and sugar such as sauteed pears with spices and honey.

[Bucko]

FWIW, Silver Lake wines are pretty pedestrian IMO. They lack balancing acidity.

[Moushegh]

Hi Foodie, would you mind explaining this in furhter detail?
"No wine is generically sweet, dry or otherwise; it depends on the style intended."
~~~~~~~~
I consider myself to be a novice as well, so thanks for the explanation. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by Moushegh (edited 02-09-2006).]

[Innkeeper]

Let me take a shot at that. All wine grapes contain sugar. When fermatation occurs the sugar is turned into alcohol. When all the sugar is fermented the wine is dry, i.e. contains no more sugar. If the grape is such that it shows well as sweet as well as dry, then either the fermentation is stopped before all the sugar is converted or fresh juice (containing sugar) is added to the dry wine. Riesling is one of the rare grapes that shows well as a dry wine or with many degrees (percentages) of residual sugar (RS).



[This message has been edited by Innkeeper (edited 02-10-2006).]

[Kcwhippet]

Interestingly, Kendall Jackson is purported to add some unfermented Muscat grape juice to its Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay. This would help it appeal to the very novice or occasional wine drinker who's not used to dry wines, as Chardonnay should be. It's no wonder the KJ VS Chard is the largest selling restaurant Chard. Unfortunately, folks that drink it as their Chard of choice are passing up some very nice wines out there in favor of a safe thing. Oh well.

[Thomas]

I would only ad to IK's rendering that it is virtually impossible to get all the sugar in juice to ferment out--just a law of nature.

Luckily, humans don't generally detect sugar at levels lower than .5 % by volume, which is where most dry wines are at (under .5% sugar by vfolume). Also, the word "dry" is not a good descriptor on its own, because the higher the acidity, the less easy it is to detect how much sugar remains; hence, a dry Riesling can sometimes contain as much as 1 % residual sugar, but with high acidity, it doesn't taste as sweet as, say, that KJ KC posted about.

Also, a properly trained taster can detect sugar exclusive of the acidity--but it takes work.

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 02-10-2006).]

[pamelah148]

Thanks everyone, it's been a few days since I've been able to get back on line. I think I would like a reisling a little dryer than the silver lake that I had. that was alot of good info. This is a considerable help. So essentially the higher the alchohol the drier the wine. Am I understanding that correctly? Also a question about Kendall Jackson's red wine 2003, would this be a wine that would need to set for awhile to soften the tannins or one that is meant to be immediatly consumed? Or is it even worth buying? Happy Valentines day everyone!!!!!

[Innkeeper]

Not quite, Pam. Dryness and alcohol level are products of fermenation and independent of each other, but both dependent of the sugar in the origanial grapes. The more suger the more alcohol. Dry or sweet depend on how much of the sugar was fermented or put back in. Much Riesling is low in alcohol, particularly that from Germany where they always have a tough just getting the grapes ripe, that is, developing much sugar.