FYI,
>From a beer list in Fargo on the taste of carbonation.
>From a beer perspective, carbonation brings the aromas
to the taster's olafactories.
Also, carbonation accentuates the bitterness.
That is, un-carbonated or under-carbonated beer is hard to
judge - flavors aren't coming out. Also, overall profile is
slanted towards the sweet and full due to a lack of CO2.
On the plus side, over carbonated beers will "taste" more
bitter and lighter bodied....
http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/Research/ResearchResults/NewsReleases/CurrentNewsRe
leases/Carbonation.htm
October 15, 2009 - Scientists Discover Protein Receptor for Carbonation Taste
Embargoed for Release
Thursday, October 15, 2009, 2 p.m. ET
Contact:
Bob Kuska, (301) 594-7560
kuskar(a)nidcr.nih.gov
CarbonationIn 1767, chemist Joseph Priestley stood in his laboratory one day with an idea to help English mariners stay healthy on long ocean voyages. He infused water with carbon dioxide to create an effervescent liquid that mimicked the finest mineral waters consumed at European health spas. Priestley.s man-made tonic, which he urged his benefactors to test aboard His Majesty.s ships, never prevented a scurvy outbreak. But, as the decades passed, his carbonated water became popular in cities and towns for its enjoyable taste and later as the main ingredient of sodas, sparkling wines, and all variety of carbonated drinks.
Missing from this nearly 250-year-old story is a scientific explanation of how people taste the carbonation bubbling in their glass. In this week.s issue of the journal Science, researchers at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their colleagues from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) report that they have discovered the answer in mice, whose sense of taste closely resembles that of humans.
They found that the taste of carbonation is initiated by an enzyme tethered like a small flag from the surface of sour-sensing cells in taste buds. The enzyme, called carbonic anhydrase 4, interacts with the carbon dioxide in the soda, activating the sour cells in the taste bud and prompting it to send a sensory message to the brain, where carbonation is perceived as a familiar sensation.
.Of course, this raises the question of why carbonation doesn.t just taste sour,. says Nicholas Ryba, Ph.D., a senior author of this study and an NIDCR scientist. .We know that carbon dioxide also stimulates the mouth.s somatosensory system. Therefore, what we perceive as carbonation must reflect the combination of this somatosensory information with that from taste..
A somatosensory system transmits sensory information within the body from protein receptors to nerve fibers and onward to the brain, where a sensation is perceived. Common sensory information includes taste, touch, pain, and temperature.
Ryba added that the taste of carbonation is quite deceptive. .When people drink soft drinks, they think that they are detecting the bubbles bursting on their tongue,. he said. .But if you drink a carbonated drink in a pressure chamber, which prevents the bubbles from bursting, it turns out the sensation is actually the same. What people taste when they detect the fizz and tingle on their tongue is a combination of the activation of the taste receptor and the somatosensory cells. That.s what gives carbonation its characteristic sensation..
Although some chefs might disagree, food does not tickle the taste buds that line the upper surface of the tongue, roof of the mouth, and upper esophagus. Rather the salt in a pretzel or the sugars in a chocolate drop bind to matching taste receptor cells clustered in our taste buds.
Scientists believe that our sense of taste generates only a limited palate of distinct qualities: the familiar sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory tastes. Much of the flavor of food (the .tickling of taste buds.) comes from a combination of this taste information with input from other senses like touch and smell.
Over the past decade, there has been tremendous progress in identifying the basis for detection of the five major taste qualities. Indeed, the laboratories of Charles Zuker, Ph.D., a senior author of this study from UCSD, and Ryba have previously teamed up to identify the receptor proteins and cells responsible for sweet, bitter, and savory taste and the receptor cells for sour detection. But can our sense of taste detect other flavors?
Recent work from a number of groups has suggested taste buds might detect other qualities, such as fat and metallic tastes. It also indicated that the gas carbon dioxide induces strong responses in taste nerves. The body senses carbon dioxide on many levels . in the somatosensory system (including touch and pain), smell, and in the brain and blood to control respiration. But how it is detected in taste was quite unclear.
This prompted Jayaram Chandrashekar, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a scientist at UCSD, to explore the taste of carbonation. Together with David Yarmolinsky and Lars von Buchholtz, Ph.D., co-authors of the paper, he discovered that the enzyme called carbonic anhydrase 4 is selectively expressed on the surface of sour taste receptor cells.
Carbonic anhydrase 4, or CA-IV, is one of a family of enzymes that catalyzes the conversion carbon dioxide to carbonic acid, which rapidly ionizes to release a proton (acid ion) and a bicarbonate ion (weak base). By so doing, carbonic anhydrases help to provide cells and tissues with a buffer that helps prevent excessive changes in pH, a measure of acidity.
The scientists found that if they eliminated CA-IV from the sour-sensing cells or inhibited the enzyme's activity, they severely reduced a mouse.s sense of taste for carbon dioxide. Thus CA-IV activity provides the primary signal detected by the taste system. As CA-IV is expressed on the surface of sour cells, Chandrashekar and co-workers concluded that the enzyme is ideally poised to generate an acid stimulus for detection by these cells when presented with carbon dioxide.
Why do mammals taste carbonation? The scientists are still not sure if carbon dioxide detection itself serves an important role or is just a consequence of the presence of CA-IV on the surface of the sour cells, where it may be located to help maintain the pH balance in taste buds. As Ryba says, "That question remains very much open and is a good one to pursue in the future..
The article is titled .The Taste of Carbonation.. The authors are Jayaram Chandrashekar, David Yarmolinsky, Lars von Buchholtz, Martyn Goulding, William Sly, Nicholas J. P. Ryba, and Charles S. Zuker.
###
The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) is the Nation.s leading funder of research on oral, dental, and craniofacial health.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) . The Nation's Medical Research Agency . includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
--
------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
FYI/FYE
SFGC
The Chronicle Recommends: Oregon Pinot Noirs
Jon BonnéChronicle Wine Editor
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Oregon Pinot Noir 2006 Argyle Nuthouse Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2007 Bergstorm Bergstorm Vineyard Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2008 Big Table Farm Resonance Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton Pi... More...
If you're an Oregon winemaker, you never forget the constant risk of rain - certainly not in 2007. An extended spell of precipitation, several weeks in the midst of the harvest, took its toll on an otherwise auspicious vintage.
That didn't spell disaster. But it did create a serious challenge - for winemakers scrambling to get grapes during the dry spells and now for the rest of us, facing the 2007s on shelves.
Our annual tasting of some 80 Oregon Pinots hinged around that year, plus a handful of late-released 2006s and newly hatched 2008s as bookends. The 2007s were the most difficult Oregon releases I've assessed since 2003, when blazing heat drained many wines of typicity.
This isn't to say that there aren't great 2007s. It might be overstating the case to say that success came from the Willamette Valley's most experienced hands, but experience clearly counted. Consider it a reminder that winemaking talent is more about navigating tough years than basking in easy ones.
To navigate it all, I was joined by Clay Reynolds, beverage director for the Moss Room and Coco500 in San Francisco; and Alex Bernardo, owner of the Vineyard Gate in Millbrae. Both are loyal Oregon fans, not always easy when deluged by Pinot grown closer to home.
Oregon's promise of Pinot that tips a hat to Burgundy's nuance - a sometimes overstated claim - was on display for good and ill. The most successful 2007s offer deep red fruit and the earthy mystique at which the state excels, achieving ripeness amid a high-acid edge. That signals good potential in the cellar.
But those successes came amid shortfalls: wines that wore too much oak to the party, refusing to accept a stylistic retrofit in a light year; wines that lacked concentration but tasted as though they minted from a more grandiose blueprint.
Judging from our lineup, not many wineries declassified. Many wines would have been good drinking at $20, but not north of $30, where we frequently found ourselves. As Reynolds put it: "For this vintage, you need a guide."
Which brings us to the experience part. Winning examples came from winemakers including Bergstrom's Josh Bergstrom; Stoller's Melissa Burr; Cristom's Steve Doerner; Penner-Ash's Lynn Penner-Ash; and Tony Rynders, at the time still guiding the wines of Domaine Serene. All have a track record; all found distinctly pleasing expressions in delicate fruit. Those finessed expressions leave 2007 as a year when subtlety reigned, if imperfectly.
A coda: After the trials of 2007, Oregon received a Pinot bounty last year.
The initial 2008s we encountered were brimming with pretty fruit. If the '07s
are an uneven lot, a new crop of excellent Pinots should soon be winding their
way down Interstate 5.
2006 Argyle Nuthouse Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($60)
Argyle's broad-shouldered effort shines in a fine vintage. Distinct baking spice and deep red fruit, with a bright huckleberry overtone and touches of soy and orange peel. Properly ripe and oak-inflected, with a suppleness all through.
2007 Bergstrom Bergstrom Vineyard Dundee Hills Pinot Noir ($75)
Loamy and dense, like a young Gevrey Chambertin. The high tones sail through but there's lots of darker, deeper fruit underneath. Put them together and you have a terrific interplay that keeps returning you to the glass. You'll find a similar energy in Bergstrom's De Lancellotti Vineyard effort ($65).
2008 Big Table Farm Resonance Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir ($45):
Burnt orange peel, sweet extracted cherry and a bell-clear cranberry highlight, with a mineral edge. Hard to access at first - it's still pretty young - but there's ample ripeness amid its edgy acidity.
2007 Brandborg Love Puppets Umpqua Valley Pinot Noir ($30):
>From southern Oregon, a high-acid approach with some grain in the tannins. But the herbal and cranberry notes offer great freshness. A lighter, lunchtime Pinot.
2007 Cristom Mount Jefferson Cuvee Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($30):
Steve Doerner's efforts show how it could be done in this vintage. An unmistakable scent of matsutake mushroom, with rich cherry fruit and a leathery meatiness. Generous fruit balances out forward tannins. Rich and dense for the vintage, and absolutely lovely. Keep an eye out for the 2007 Jessie Vineyard when it's available.
2007 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($45):
Musky and subtle, with some distinct tannin up-front but a generous, pine-tinged palate. Amply ripe dark fruit and mineral energy demonstrate its staying power.
2008 Duck Pond Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($20):
A lighter approach, with full, up-front fruit: sweet bayberry and sour cherry.
2007 Domaine Serene Yamhill Cuvee Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($42):
With guidance from now-former winemaker Tony Rynders, Serene's polished style found a more subtle, high-acid expression in 2007. There's pleasing richness balanced by bright fruit. Huckleberry highlights, with a bit of textural grain adding structure.
2007 Le Cadeau Vineyard Cote Est Oregon Pinot Noir ($47):
Tom and Deb Mortimer hire several winemakers to work the different portions of their vineyard. Steve Ryan of Mendocino Farms tackled this eastern block. Silky and subtle, with a deeper, extracted style and bold structure that shows its potential.
2007 Lemelson Thea's Selection Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($32):
A frosty, precise approach from a mix of organic vineyards. Slightly standoffish at first, but gray mineral and cool huckleberry accent a ripe fruit core lifted by buoyant acidity.
2008 O'Reilly's Oregon Pinot Noir ($17):
Straightforward but very refreshing, with lots of fruit punch and raspberry. A perennial great deal.
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------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
October 16, 2009
David Lake, Washington Wine Innovator, Dies at 66
By WILLIAM GRIMES
David Lake, a pioneering Washington winemaker who made the state.s first vineyard-designated wines and its first wines from the syrah, cabernet franc and pinot gris grapes, died on Oct. 5 at his home in Sammamish, Wash. He was 66.
His wife, Connie Sile-Lake, confirmed the death. She did not give a cause but said he had been in poor health for years.
When Mr. Lake arrived in Washington in 1979, hired as an enologist by the company that would become Columbia Winery, he was venturing into virgin territory. As few others could, he foresaw great days ahead for Washington wines, especially the syrah, which is now, largely because of his efforts, the state.s third-most-widely-planted red-wine grape, after cabernet sauvignon and merlot.
.Nobody believed syrah would do well here,. said Richard Kinssies, the director of the Seattle Wine School. .They thought it could not survive the winter, that you couldn.t ripen it and even if you ripened it you couldn.t make good wine out of it. He proved everybody wrong..
Mr. Lake favored a French style of wine despite his American training. His cabernets, syrahs and chardonnays had a sleek, understated profile that contrasted markedly with the concentrated, oaky, high-alcohol wines of California.
.He understood and could make modern, New World wines, but the Old World was his template,. Mr. Kinssies said. .He wasn.t out to produce the biggest, baddest wine. He was interested in producing wines with elegance and a sense of place. And he did..
David Lancelot Lake, a Canadian citizen, was born in London on March 27, 1943, and spent his childhood in Britain. After earning a degree in history and political science at McGill University in Montreal, he began working for Saccone & Speed, a wine and liquor company, in Britain. In 1975 he passed the notoriously demanding Master of Wine test.
In 1977 he came to the United States and took graduate courses in enology and viticulture at the University of California, Davis. After doing brief stints with Eyrie, Amity and Bethel Heights wineries in Oregon, he was hired as an enologist by Associated Vintners, Washington.s first winery, where he became winemaker within a year. The winery, founded in 1962 by a group of friends who made wine in a garage, changed its name to Columbia Winery in the early 1980s and in 1988 relocated to Woodinville.
In 1981 Mr. Lake released Washington.s first vineyard-designated wines, cabernet sauvignons from the Otis, Red Willow and Sagemoor vineyards. He was particularly enthusiastic about the potential of the Red Willow vineyard in the Yakima Valley and encouraged its grower, Mike Sauer, to plant syrah, the principal red-wine grape of the Rhone Valley in France.
In 1988, Columbia released Washington.s first syrah, which led to a syrah boom in the state. In 1991, again using grapes from Red Willow, Mr. Lake produced the state.s first cabernet franc.
In 1994, Mr. Lake scored another first when he introduced a pinot gris from Otis Vineyard, a white wine with a floral quality. Although red wines, especially syrah, were his passion, Mr. Lake was successful with his gewüminers and rieslings.
In 2006, Mr. Lake retired because of poor health. His wife is his only immediate survivor.
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------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
According to amazon dot com, a revised & updated edition of Remington
Norman's indispensable "Great Wines of Burgundy" is scheduled to be issued
in mid-March 2010. You might want to have this on your radar.
FYI/FYE
October 13, 2009
Vital Signs
Nutrition: Lower Depression Risk Linked to Mediterranean Diet
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Eating a Mediterranean-style diet . packed with fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil and fish . is good for your heart, many studies have found. Now scientists are suggesting the diet may be good for your mental health, too.
A study of over 10,000 Spaniards followed for almost four and half years on average found that those who reported eating a healthy Mediterranean diet at the beginning of the study were about half as likely to develop depression than those who said they did not stick to the diet.
All of the participants were free of depression when they were recruited to the study, and each filled out a 136-item food frequency questionnaire when they joined. Based on their self-reported dietary habits, they were assigned a score between 0 and 9, with the highest score reflecting the closest adherence to a Mediterranean diet.
Over time, those who had scored between 5 and 9 on the Mediterranean diet were 42 percent to 51 percent less likely to develop depression, the study found, than those who scored between 0 and 2.
The study, which was funded by the Spanish government.s official medical research agency, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the Mediterranean diet and a lower risk for depression, only an association between the two. Still, many scientists are convinced that some damaging inflammatory and metabolic processes involved in cardiovascular disease may also play a role in mental health.
.Both cardiovascular disease and depression share common mechanisms related to endothelium function and inflammation,. said Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, professor of preventive medicine at University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and senior author of the paper, published in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
.The membranes of our neurons are composed of fat, so the quality of fat that you are eating definitely has an influence on the quality of the neuron membranes, and the body.s synthesis of neurotransmitters is dependent on the vitamins you.re eating,. Dr. Martinez-Gonzalez added. .We think those with lowest adherence to the Mediterranean dietary plan have a deficiency of essential nutrients..
The elements of the diet most closely linked to a lower risk of depression were fruits and nuts, legumes and a high ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fats, the study found.
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------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
FYI.
Merritt Olson from Charles Smith Winery will be pouring at S. Lyndale this afternoon.
NYT article on WA State Rieslings.
Cheers,
Jim
----- Forwarded message from Mitch Zavada <Mitch(a)southlyndaleliquors.com> -----
To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu
From: Mitch Zavada <Mitch(a)southlyndaleliquors.com>
Subject: Last week of wine sale + cool tastings
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:19:19 -0500
Precedence: bulk
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Hello everyone-
South Lyndale Liquor's Fall Wine Sale is winding down, but you still have four days to take advantage of the best wine sale in the Twin Cities! Tonight is a great night to pop in as we will be hosting Merritt Olson of Charles Smith Winery ( http://e2ma.net/go/2461044145/2238550/84701827/32025/goto:http://www.charle… ) from 4-630 for a free tasting of their awesome wines. Charles Smith [also of K Vintners] is a leader in the new wave of Washington state producers. Click here ( http://e2ma.net/go/2461044145/2238550/84701828/32025/goto:http://www.winesp… ) for a Wine Spectator article on Charles Smith and his wines.
Charles Smith wines to sample:
2007 Eve Chardonnay
2007 Velvet Devil Merlot
2007 Boom Boom Syrah
2008 Kung Fu Girl Riesling
2006 K-Vintners Millbrandt Syrah
2006 K-Vintners Clifton Syrah
Finally, the next meeting of the Grapevine Wine Club ( http://e2ma.net/go/2461044145/2238550/84701824/32025/goto:http://southlynda… ) is Wednesday, October 14, 7-9pm at the Park Plaza hotel in Bloomington. We will be featuring the wines of Jorge Ordonez with Master Sommelier Sarah Floyd. Jorge Ordonez is the top of the tops when it comes to Spanish wine importers and the evening will be filled with great values as well as a couple of treats to finish.
As always, the tasting is free for members of the Grapevine Wine Club and just $15 for visitors. Grab a couple of your Spanish wine-lovin' friends and come out for a great night of wine tasting.
Thanks and we'll see you soon!
5300 Lyndale Ave S. | Minneapolis | MN | 55419
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September 30, 2009
WINES OF THE TIMES
Riesling Gains a U.S. Foothold
By ERIC ASIMOV
FOR years sommeliers and certain wine writers shouted themselves hoarse preaching the virtues of riesling.
In a white-wine world dominated by top-heavy chardonnays, saucy sauvignon blancs and vapid pinot grigios, they prescribed riesling as a wine that had everything. The riesling grape was versatile, producing wines that could be bone dry or syrupy sweet. Rieslings could be profound, delicate and sometimes both. They were rarely heavy or oaky, and they were great with food.
Riesling advocates continued to preach even though nobody seemed to be listening. And then it happened. While pinot noir, abetted by the popular film .Sideways,. was soaring in popularity, riesling was quietly gaining ground, too. In the last five years riesling has secured a neat little niche for itself in stores and on restaurant wine lists.
Now, it seems riesling is being grown everywhere. It comes from Germany and Alsace, of course. More rieslings are arriving from Austria, which is great news . I love them. I.m even seeing a little riesling from Italy. Australia is bullish on riesling, New Zealand calfish, and even South Africa.s in on the act.
Let.s not neglect the good old U.S. of A. California, for example, has more than doubled its planting of riesling in this decade, to almost 3,100 acres in 2008 from about 1,500 acres in 2000. Washington state.s riesling acreage increased to more than 4,000 in 2006 from about 1,900 in 1999. New York, which had just under 500 acres in 2001, now has an estimated 1,000, 90 percent of them in the Finger Lakes region.
Given the surge in popularity and production, it seems worth asking: is riesling the new sauvignon blanc?
Well, more on that later. First, it also seems worth asking just how good is American riesling? To answer that question, the wine panel recently tasted 20 bottles, restricting ourselves as best we could to dry riesling. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Beth von Benz, a former sommelier who is now a wine consultant, and Evan Spingarn, a riesling fanatic who works for David Bowler Wine, an importer and distributor.
As usual in these blind tastings, we bought our wines retail from local wine shops and through Internet merchants. I can tell you up front that some of my favorite American rieslings, from Smith-Madrone and Stony Hill, both in Napa Valley, were not in the lineup. Those wines are made in small quantities and rarely show up in retail shops.
I.ve also tasted very good rieslings from promising but off-the-grid wine regions like Texas and Michigan. Those wines were not included either, as you essentially have to visit those regions to find them.
We were left with rieslings from America.s four primary wine-producing states: 7 bottles from New York, 6 from Washington, 5 from California and 2 from Oregon.
Overwhelmingly, we favored the rieslings from Washington and New York. Five Washington rieslings made our top 10, along with four from New York and one from Oregon. The California rieslings were shut out, including bottles that I.ve liked in the past, like those from Trefethen and Chateau Montelena.
The differences between those we liked and those we didn.t seemed vast. Florence was skeptical of the wines in general, saying she found very little sense of place in them. Evan agreed, saying the general level of mediocrity really made our favorites stand out.
Beth and I were more pleased. My favorites showed clear mineral flavors and discernible riesling character, while Beth was even happier than I was.
.Acidity and minerality drove through all,. she said, which is .refreshing and wonderful..
Another good thing about these rieslings was their price. All of them were $25 or less; 17 were $20 or less.
Our favorite, the 2007 Eroica, is a collaboration between Chateau Ste. Michelle, the huge Washington winemaker, and Ernst Loosen, the eminent riesling producer from the Mosel region of Germany. The wine is made at Chateau Ste. Michelle from grapes grown in the Columbia Valley. Regardless of where the inspiration comes from, the wine is superb, graceful and tangy, full of mineral, peach and ginger flavors. It is not quite dry, meaning the wine has a bit of residual sugar in it, yet it was so balanced it didn.t taste sweet.
Chateau Ste. Michelle.s ordinary bottling of riesling, made without the help of Mr. Loosen, was No. 6 on our list. Straightforward and pleasant, it lacked Eroica.s depth and dimension.
At $20, the Eroica was the most expensive wine in our top 10. The least expensive, and our best value, was the 2007 Hogue, also from the Columbia Valley, which we rated No. 2. It was lively and refreshing. Like the Eroica, it was not quite dry, yet so well balanced that it seemed crisp.
Next came another from the Columbia Valley, the 2008 Kung Fu Girl from Charles Smith. It was fresh, juicy and exuberant, though perhaps without the refinement of the Eroica and the balance of the Hogue.
The trio of Washington rieslings was followed by two Finger Lakes wines that are almost annoyingly interchangeable. They were from the two leading New York producers, Dr. Konstantin Frank and Hermann J. Wiemer, and I can never quite decide which I like better. In this tasting, both bottles were from 2007, both were $18 and we awarded both two-and-a-half stars. I gave the edge to the Dr. Frank because it had a bit more of a mineral character than the Wiemer, though I.d happily drink either one.
The 2005 Belle Pente from the Willamette Valley was the only Oregon riesling in our top 10, at No. 7. It was also the oldest bottle in the tasting, and it already showed a touch of kerosene, a pleasant sign of age in a riesling, but one you might wait another 10 years to find in European rieslings, which age far more slowly. Not that it.s fading fast . the wine was quite enjoyable.
To answer the question I left hanging: no, riesling is not the new sauvignon blanc. It will never be as ubiquitous, yet I think its niche is secure. While American rieslings are not yet consistently good, they are improving. They offer a lot to like right now, and it seems clear that the best is yet to come.
Chateau Ste. Michelle-Dr. Loosen $20 ... (Three Stars)
Columbia Valley Eroica 2007
Tangy, succulent and largely dry with peach and ginger flavors.
BEST VALUE
Hogue Columbia Valley 2007 $9 ... (Three Stars)
Crisp, balanced and fresh with aromas of flowers,
minerals and ripe peaches.
Charles Smith Columbia Valley $13 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars) Kung Fu Girl 2008
Fresh and perfumed, with lively flavors of citrus, flowers and minerals.
Dr. Konstantin Frank $18 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars) Finger Lakes Dry 2007
Balanced and very dry; tropical fruit, citrus and mineral flavors.
Hermann J. Wiemer $18 .. ½ (Two and a Half Stars) Finger Lakes Dry 2007
Graceful and zesty, with floral, tropical and citrus flavors.
Chateau Ste. Michelle $13 .. (Two Stars) Columbia Valley Dry 2007
Light and lithe with herbal and grassy flavors.
Belle Pente Willamette Valley 2005 $19 .. (Two Stars)
Subtle floral and mineral flavors with a touch of kerosene,
typical of an aging riesling.
Mercer Yakima Valley 2007 $12 .. (Two Stars)
Balanced with flavors of ripe peach and tropical fruit.
Shaw Vineyard Finger Lakes 2006 $18 .. (Two Stars)
Dry and floral with flavors of minerals and earth.
Red Tail Ridge $17 .. (Two Stars) Finger Lakes Dry 2007
Balanced and integrated with aromas of flowers, minerals and citrus.
----- End forwarded message -----
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* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
