A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Full disclosure… it’s almost certainly the Semi-Dry bottling that I was writing about, not the Dry bottling. And I’m laughing at my note that I probably wouldn’t order it again. I have, often, both Dry and Semi-Dry, and love them and love that people love them. I get antsy when at least one of them isn’t on the shelf at Copake Wine Works. I’m also laughing about my craving for “mind-numbing” acidity. These days, I often find myself bemoaning it as fashion and craving at least a bit of sugar. Oh dry bird of youth….
Originally published on August 22, 2o08.
Just a little over a week late…
The theme for this WBW was “Back to Your Roots” – the idea being to go back to one of the first wines that made some sort of impact on our wine-drinking selves. Although they were the first wines that actually touched my lips, I’m skipping the J Roget sparkling ‘champagne’ and Sutter Home White Zinfandel and going straight to Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling.
The Wiemer winery is located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, which is also home to Cornell University, where I went to school. I wasn’t in the Hotel School, but my senior year, I took the school’s Intro to Wines class. This was an intimate wine education course for 500 – 800 people. It was a model of logistical efficiency – imagine the complexities required to get tasting-sized portions of 5 – 7 wines to an auditorium filled with thirsty college students.
The first tasting session focued on Cornell’s backyard – the Finger Lakes wineries. Since it gets cold there, the region is best suited to the same grapes you’ll find in Germany or Alsace – espeically Riesling. This was a lucky twist of geography because the Riesling is an easy grape to love, especially the trademark Finger Lakes style of that time (early 90’s) which was dry, but not too dry. It was the perfect first step into the ‘real world’ of wine beyond White Zinfandel and J. Roget sparkling ‘champagne’.
The Wiemer Riesling was one of the wines we tried that first class and the wine store just off campus wisely displayed bottles of it which many of us picked up on the way home. I introduced my friends to the wine and it was a confidence booster to see that they liked it as well. It felt like proof that wine didn’t have to be a scary, snob-ridden thing. The Wiemer not only introduced me to the world of wine-beyond-blush, but it also introduced me to the joy of sharing and introducing that world to others.
So the Wiemer was the wine I had in mind for this WBW. Of course I didn’t get my act together and the Wendesday passed without notice. But that Saturday I was at Terrior, leafing through their Summer of Riesling list….and there it was….the Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling 2006!
So how did it taste? Like the really easy to love starter wine I remember it as. It didn’t have the mind-numbing acidity that I now tend to look for in my dry Rieslings. Nor did it have the precise balance of sweetness and tartness you find in the best sweet German Rieslings. But it was nice – notes of lime, minerality, hints of honey, enough sweetness to please a neophite wino’s sweet tooth balanced by enough acidity to raise the experience up a notch or two on the sophistication scale.
Would I order it again? 15 years into my (legal) wine drinking career, probably not…my palate has evolved and I like my Rieslings styled a little bit differently. Would I bring it into the store and recommend it to those just starting to get into wine? Probably. After all, you need to start somewhere!