A Weekend With Two German Rieslings...and a Wedding Cake

This weekend proved to be a pretty eventful one. Not only did I pick up my wedding dress (which fits, thank goodness!), but the bakery also delivered our wedding cake and groom's cake. The wedding isn't until next weekend, but due to a stroke of bad luck, the entire staff at the cake company is going to be gone on a cruise this whole next week...so they had to come set up our cake this weekend, and we'll keep it in the deep freeze until the big day. Anyway, the girl assigned to our delivery got all five tiers stacked and ready to go, then she and my dad set about lowering it into the deep freeze using a couple of tie-down straps. My mom and I looked on anxiously, since all we could do was pray that the whole cake wouldn't come crashing to the ground on what seemed like the longest three foot journey in the history of mankind. I guess our prayers worked, because even though the cake was just a moment away from disaster the entire way down, it miraculously made it to the bottom of the freezer in one piece. Although the poor girl seemed calm during the whole process, as soon as the cake was safely in the freezer, she collapsed against the wall in relief. I think ours was without a doubt her most stressful delivery ever, but she handled it extremely well, and hopefully she isn't scarred for life from the whole experience!

Later that afternoon, my mom brought over some of the wine she had picked out from World Market, and we had a "tasting party," just the two of us. The night before, I had opened one of my bottles, a 2007 German Riesling called "bloom".

2007 bloom Riesling (Germany)
After swirling it, I took a lengthy sniff. It had a very acidic aroma, and smelled like a combination of green apple, white grape, flowers, and weeds. In accordance with Kevin Zraly's suggestions in his "Windows on the World Wine Journal," I took a sip, then waited 30 seconds before taking another in order to be able to properly take in its flavors after the initial "shock to the taste buds". Next, I began Mr. Zraly's 60-second tasting process. The first 15 seconds were overwrought with acidity, and provided no sweetness or fruit flavors. The next 15 were much the same, with a small decrease in the level of acidity and a small hint of green apple and white grape flavors. In the next 30 seconds, all of the flavors faded, and the sweetness I was searching for never emerged. Overall, this wine was fairly unoffensive, but unremarkable all the same. It seemed to need some more time to achieve a better balance between the acidity and fruit flavors, as the acidity was rather overpowering all the way through. I might pair it with an equally unremarkable dish, such as chicken or a mild seafood.

MY GRADE: +/-

2007 Moselland Ars Vitis Riesling (Germany)
Saturday afternoon, my mom brought over another 2007 German Riesling, Moselland Ars Vitis. This was the first wine I had ever opened with a corkscrew (the bloom Riesling was also a screw-cap variety), which turned out to be an adventure in and of itself! I used a corkscrew from my Oneida wine set, and removed the cork without any problem. I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I realized that I couldn't get the cork off the corkscrew...I tried twisting it off to no avail, and finally abandoned the task in favor of sampling the wine.

This variety turned out to be infinintely more appealing than the bloom Riesling. Its aroma was much more mild, and consisted primarily of white grape and a hint of green apple. After the initial sip, the first 15 seconds of tasting proved to be very pleasant; this wine was only mildly acidic, and the fruitiness (white grape)appeared much sooner. By the end of the 30-45 second time frame, the flavors achieved a pleasant balance: the acidity all but disappeared, and though there was still little residual sweetness, the fruit flavors showed themselves very well.

The bottom line? The Moselland Ars Vitis Riesling was much more appealing and ready to drink than the bloom Riesling, achieving a very pleasant balance between sweetness and acidity and a harmony of flavors, both of which the bloom very much lacked. The Moselland could withstand a more flavorful chicken or seafood dish than the bloom, and would undoubtedly appeal to a much wider variety of palettes.

MY GRADE: + or ++

Next, I'm planning on trying an Australian Riesling by Yellow Tail, which is chilling in my fridge as we speak. We'll see how the Aussie stacks up against the German varieties!

In the meantime, if you're looking for a great wine reference book, I highly recommend Kevin Zraly's "Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 25th Anniversary Edition", along with his wine journal of the same name. They're great reads if you want to learn more about wine, and Mr. Zraly is simultaneously thorough and accessible in his approach to wine.


Oh, and about that stubborn cork...After drinking a glass of the Moselland Riesling, I easily unscrewed it from the corkscrew. Apparently, that's the trick to successfully removing the cork after opening your bottle of wine...You just have to drink some of it first! =)