A few weeks ago I gathered with my small wine group from work to get some relief from the high temps with some Riesling. Thanks to Vino Me passing on a few of his deals to me at the end of last year, I paid $15 or less for all the bottles tasted. I don't have a lot of experience with Rieslings, so I'm not sure how useful these notes will be to anyone else...but here goes

2004 Müller-Catoir Gimmeldinger Mandelgarten Riesling Kab
I was looking forward to trying my first Muller-Catoir and this didn't disappoint. Pear and flowers on the nose. Flavors were white fruit with the most prevalent being pear. Some sweetness to this but had some mineral notes to balance everything. Creamy mouth feel and nice, long finish. 92 pts

2006 Jakoby-Mathy Kinheimer Rosenberg Riesling
I thought this had a very similar flavor profile to the M-C. Pear was again the prominent white fruit I found. It didn't have the same depth of flavor or creamy mouth feel as the M-C, but I found it quite a nice drop. I found this for $12 and wish I had picked up more than the two I did. 89-90 pts

1999 A. Christmann Konigsbacher Idig Riesling Spätlese Trocken
This wine was a great learning experience for me. First, though I know that Trocken means (or signifies) dry, I was surprised at how dry this wine was. Nose of white flowers and lime. Flavors of honey dew and pear with a trace of pineapple and quite a bit of chalkiness. The other learning component of this wine for me was that it was the first time I've experienced the petrol flavor in a Riesling. I've noticed traces of petrol aroma before but not flavors. During our initial tasting of this wine, I found no petrol flavors. After it had been open for awhile, the petrol element was very prevalent in the mid palate. I have to say I didn't like the petrol flavor. During the initial tastings of the wines, I rated this 89 points. If the petrol notes had been there from the beginning I would have not rated it.

2006 Kuhl Weinhaus Riesling
This wine underscores the problem with purchasing wine in Ohio. I paid $15 for this locally to round out the tasting. A search online shows that this typically sells in the $10-$12 range. Not a lot on the nose. Flavors of melon with a touch of citrus. This was drier than I expected also based upon the comments of the person in my local wine store that recommened it. Nothing profound here but not a bad quaffer at all. At $10 I think it would be a marginal buy again, but not at $15. 83 pts

Glad you enjoyed the Muller-Catoir. I have another deal for you if you are interested in the 2006 Müller-Catoir Riesling MC trocken. I haven't tried it yet and it is only M-C's intro wine but for about $5 you can't go wrong. Email me if interested.

VM

email sent

To me Riesling is as close to the perfect grape as it gets. Can be drunk young or aged, dry(er) or sweet, by itself or with food. Few grapes have the reach that Riesling has IMO.

It's one drawback is that it can't be red.