White
Wine Tasting and Reviews of White Wines
Wine Tasting:
2004 Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Dry Riesling
Winery: Bonny Doon
Brand/Type: Riesling
Vintage: 2004
Country: USA
Region: California (not really – see text)
Alcohol content: 12%
Closure: Screwcap
Appearance: Extremely Pale Dishwater Blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Melon and tangerine
First things first; Bonny Doon is a California winery. However this vintage is made from grapes (according to the bottle) harvested from eastern Washington and the Middle Mosel. So it’s a mix of American and German grapes. Hmm, as Colonel Klink would say, “Interesting, very interesting.” (If you don’t know who Colonel Klink is try Yahoo ok?)
So how does it taste? Like a Pinot Grigio. This is the driest Riesling I’ve ever tasted. The bouquet and aroma hint of a Riesling, but it is far too light and watery and has a noticeable, but not overbearing, oak finish. It doesn’t have the complexity of a Riesling either.
We’ve seen this wine hyped and so we were excited to try it. Unfortunately we’re not excited anymore. Like so many wines, especially California wines, the bottle had more character than the wine; fancy label, so-so wine. Bonny Doon also has a rather annoying website. It is entirely Flash based and spends more time distracting you than informing you about their wine. “Understated†is seemingly not a Bonny Doon trait.
Wine Tasting:
2004 Chateau Grand Traverse Semi-Dry Riesling
Winery: Chateau Grand Traverse
Brand/Type: Semi-Dry Riesling
Vintage: 2005
Country: USA
Region: Grand Traverse Peninsula, Michigan
Alcohol content: 12%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Pale blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Lemony citrus and melon
This is an excellent Riesling that compares well against any German Kabinett. The label says “Semi-Dry†but off dry is more accurate (at least for this bottle).
Very smooth on the palate, it is even with a complex fruit flavor that includes tangerine, orange, melon, apricot, and is well balanced with a mineral presence. It is consistent and crisp from the tip of the tongue to the finish. This is probably one of the more complex tasting Rieslings you will find anywhere.
Chateau Grand Traverse is well represented in most of the upper-Midwest. You can find this as well as other wines of theirs in most Meijer stores. Thankfully Meijer stocks regional wines and supports smaller brands. If you are in Ohio the Andersons also stocks this.
One note on the down side… the cork was overly dry. We’ve noticed this before with other bottles from Chateau Grand Traverse. This may be from improper storage at the retailer (most likely). Regardless of how, we would recommend that drink this brand soon. Frankly, with something this good, it’s too tempting not to drink right away!
Wine Tasting:
2004 Chateau Grand Traverse Johannisberg Late Harvest Riesling
Winery: Chateau Grand Traverse
Brand/Type: Johannisberg Riesling
Vintage: 2004
Country: USA
Region: Grand Traverse Peninsula, Michigan
Alcohol content: 10.5%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Light blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Apricot and melon
Off dry, lightly sweet, somewhere between a Kabinett and a Spatlese. Very nice fruitiness with a tart finish. A nice mineral edge.
Another excellent Michigan Riesling. Similar to many German offerings but with a higher alcohol content but not in a bad way; just a bit bolder than the traditional German Riesling.
Wine Tasting:
Franz Reh & Son 2002 Pinot Grigio
Winery: Franz Reh & Son
Brand/Type: Pinot Grigio
Vintage: 2002
Country: Germany
Region: Pfalz
Alcohol content: 12.5%
Closure: Synthetic Cork
Appearance: Pale gold
Aroma/Bouquet: Lemon, pine
Dry, slight bit of oak, strong sharp finish with a hint of pear at the end.
An affordable wine that is very respectable. This is a fairly simple wine without much complexity but you can do far worse with other high priced pinot grigios. If you find this buy it. You’ll do no harm to your palate or pocketbook.
Wine Tasting:
Chateau Grand Traverse 2004 Edelzwicker
Winery: Chateau Grand Traverse
Brand/Type: Edelzwicker
Vintage: 2004
Country: USA
Region: Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan
Alcohol content: 12.5%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Pale straw
Aroma/Bouquet: Apricot, sweet silage
This Edelzwicker is described by Chateau Grand Traverse as being a “Noble Blend†of Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Muscat, Riesling, and Pinot Gris. Given this complex blend of grapes, you would expect a complex wine. Chateau Grand Traverse delivers precisely that!
Chateau Grand Traverse has proven that they are not just another Northern Michigan Riesling or Cherry wine producer. They do those very well mind you. However their Chardonnays and in this case, Edelzwickers are quite engaging and rewarding.
This wine offers a large mouthful of flavor. That’s not to say that it is overwhelming, it’s not. It offers a sensory adventure that begins with the nose and continues steadily on until the finish. At 12.5 % alcohol you might expect this to have some harsheness; we detected none. We have to credit Chateau Grand Traverse’s expertise in balancing the blend of grapes. Nice job!
Unfortunately their distribution is not very wide. If you are near a Meijer store look for Chateau Grand Traverse wines in their regional section. IGA’s and Tom’s in Northern Michigan are also stocking vendors for Chateau Grand Traverse. Of course if you are in the Traverse City area you can stop by the winery or their outlet store.
Wine Tasting:
Good Harbor 2004 Late Harvest White Riesling
Winery: Good Harbor
Brand/Type: White Riesling
Vintage: 2004
Country: USA
Region: Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan
Alcohol content: 10%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Honey blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Light citrus and pear
This is a continuation on our tour of Michigan’s Traverse City area wineries.
Good Harbor is again one of the gems of Northern Michigan’s wine country. Good Harbor offers a very nice variety of wines and this time we focus on another white.
Rieslings should show a complex character. Rieslings are to flavor as chameleons are to color. Good Harbor’s whites follow in this theme.
This off dry late harvest White Riesling is quite complex. It has a range of fruitiness that goes from pear to melon with a nice bit of acidity and citrus. It also has a nice mineral edge. This is the driest of Good Harbor’s Rieslings.
Wine Tasting:
Tualatin Müller Thurgau
Winery: Tualatin
Brand/Type: Müller Thurgau
Vintage: 1996
Country: USA
Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon
Alcohol content: 11%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Pale blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Rotten cork, strong alcohol odor
This is more of a non-review than a review. Why? Well like most things in life, bottled wine has risks and rewards. This is about risk.
All bottles of wine need some form of a closure. Cork is the defacto standard with thousands of years experience. Synthetic corks and screw caps are relatively new options. Cork being an organic material has its risks. It can be flawed and allow air to seep into the wine or worse yet, allow the wine to seep out. Sometimes it can unintentionally add a flavor to the wine. Often this is due to a fungus that is carried by the cork.
A “corked” wine is not a pleasant thing. I had the misfortuane of acquiring an entire case of French Beaujolais that was corked. Both my money, and the wine, went down the drain.
Once again this misfortune has struck again. At least it’s not an entire case this time. The first bad omen should have been the price. I found this in the clearance aisle marked down to $7.99; more than half off.
The next omen was subtle; it’s age – a ten year old wine. More obvious was while uncorking the bottle, the cork broke in half. Worse was that the remainder was damp and smelled of wine. It was rotting. After finally extracting the rotten cork, we sampled the wine. It was bad. Not horribly corked, but it was indeed tainted. Upon examining the cork you could see that the cork had a flaw in it. It looked to have some small grain type defect that likely allowed the wine to infiltrate the cork and between age and handling the cork rotted.
Frankly corks should be a thing of the past. Screw caps work better. Synthetic corks are a compromise. While this won’t stop us from buying wine with natural corks, we will be a bit more cautious on buying older bottles.
Wine Tasting:
2001 Schloss Schönborn Kabinett Riesling
Winery: Schloss Schönborn
Brand/Type: Kabinett Riesling
Vintage: 2001
Country: Germany
Region: Rheingau Hattenheimer Pfaffenberg
Alcohol content: 9.5%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Light blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Peach, pear, hint of vanilla
Coming from a very old and respected winery, we had high expectations of this wine. We were not disapointed!
It’s a very crisp Kabinett that is wonderfully complex and balanced. It’s a dry Riesling (as you would expect from a Kabinett) and is indeed one Riesling that can stand on its own or be paired with a multitude of fine foods. Fish and fowl and even pork go well with this wine. It is also a wonderful wine to drink by itself on a warm summer night.
As expected of Kabinetts, it is a dry Riesling with just a tiny hint of sweetness. While it has a mostly pear and peach taste it also has a tangerine/citrus element that adds a degree of tartness and balance. While it has these delicate fruit tastes it still maintains itself as dry wine.
Schloss Schönborn is one of Germany’s oldest producers of wine and their experience is proven in this offering.
Wine Review:
2004 Leonard Kreusch Riesling
Winery: Leonard Kreusch
Brand/Type: Riesling
Vintage: 2004
Country: Germany
Region: Mosel – Saar – Ruwer
Alcohol content: 9.5%
Closure: Synthetic Cork
Appearance: Light blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Peach, orange, and apricot
This a middle of the road Riesling that seems geared toward neither impressing nor offending your palate or pocketbook. No classification is declared on the stereotypical blue bottle so we assume it is a blended wine using whatever combination picking that the vineyard(s?) offered at the time. If pressed, an Auslese would be my classification of this bottle. It’s a semi-sweet wine with the usual fruity Riesling attributes, somewhat mineral, orange, and apricot.
Wine Review:
2004 Wilhelm Bergmann Riesling Kabinett
Winery: Wilhelm Bergmann
Brand/Type: Bernakasteler Kurfürstlay Riesling Kabinett
Vintage: 2004
Country: Germany
Region: Mosel Saar Ruwer
Alcohol content: 9.5%
Closure: Natural Cork
Appearance: Pale blonde
Aroma/Bouquet: Light floral, citrus and pear
This is a classic German Kabinett that starts off lightly sweet and transforms to a rewarding complex finish that is full of fruity flavors. Has a slightly tart (citrus) element that fends off any undue sweetness. This wine has an Auslese like initial taste with a solid and genuine Kabinett body.
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