It’s wine time again! Actually, it’s a bit after wine time; this thread should have been posted last Thurday. Sorry!
Our sommelier for the week is OpalCat, who will share winey goodness with us despite being (I assume) completely swamped from an interstate move. Although sometimes the process of unpacking boxes / dealing with the DMV / finding your way around is improved by the administration of several glasses of wine. 
OpalCat, what will we be drinking this week?
Week 13 thread is here.
This week we’ll be checking out my favorite German Riesling. It’s usually about $10-13/bottle and can be found without too much trouble:
Schmitt Sohne Riesling I have a bottle of 2005 here. It has a blue label. I think there may be a couple of different ones, this one also says “Qualitatswein b. A.” on the front, which may or may not distinguish it from the others. Here is a review with a picture of the bottle that I have.
This is a quite easy to drink wine, and goes great with pastas with cream sauce, I’ve found. I’ll be anxious to hear what you think!
We love Riesling…hope I can find this one without another trip across town. I found this thread after I went to Total wine looking for the week 13 wines.
Yes, I’m way behind the 8 ball here, I know it but what can I do?
You’re not at all behind the 8 ball; the thread is late. Unless you went to Total Wine in the last 25 minutes, you wouldn’t have seen this thread.
Thanks for the link, Opal. I love extra info!
I can’t get your link to work. Do you usually get the Kabinett, Spaetlese or Auslese (I assume they make all 3)? I usually go for Kabinett in a Riesling, but I haven’t had wine from this vintner before.
Again, Quebec seems to be behind the curve. They do stock about 5 German Riesling QbA wines, so I’ll try to grab one of those when I get a chance.
Missed the edit window! The location I go to has three in stock - this one, this one, and this one. Does anyone know which one is likely to be closest to the one in the OP? Either way, Riesling is off my beaten track, so I’m happy.
Yay, a Riesling!
I’ve been having a hard time finding the past couple of selections (though I have happened upon some oddly placed wine stores). But this I’ll hunt down.
Yeah see I don’t know, because the bottle I get doesn’t have any of the three. That’s why I was trying to link to a picture of it. I’ve seen the bottles with the little diagonal ribbon with a word in it but the one my store carries has none of that on the label, so I don’t know if it’s one of those or a fourth option 
Oh, and try this link and then choose the first option, which starts “White Wine reviews Schmitt Sohne…”
Google Link
Ah, I figured it out. It’s Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete, so the three designations I was thinking about don’t apply. Those would be for Qualitätswein mit Prädikat. I also found this link, showing your wine plus the other three. Yours, I assume, is the one on the left.
Anyone interesting in digging into the arcane world of German Wine labels can start here and here.
Whoops! One last thing before I leave town: I will be off teh Intraweb for the next two and a half weeks. Enjoy the Riesling (which I will definitely buy!) and if someone wants to do the Week 15 thread on Thursday, August 9, go right ahead. Christopher is the sommelier for that week. If no one posts that thread, I’ll post it the following Monday when I get home.
OK, now to find a wine store in the middle of Missouri. Help!
Picked it up last night, for a cool $7.99/btl, not even on sale. It is hanging out in the wine fridge now, chilling.
Hah! I got it for $6.99 at BevMo today, also not on sale. Of course, I ended up buying about $100 worth of other wine, too… I mean you can’t just walk in to BevMo and buy only 1 bottle of wine!
I purchased my bottle today at Publix. $8.99 it’s a 2006 rather than 2005.
Popped that in the refrigerator while I made dinner.
For dinner I made Roman Summer Salad (recipe courtesy of Giada DiLaurentis and the Food Network) Shrimp and a loaf of crusty Tuscan Boule.
I thought the saltiness of the salad (tomatoes, capers, olives, anchovies, balsamic reduction, olive oil, basil, parsley) and the spiciness of the shrimp (sauteed in olive oil with lemon juice, crushed red pepper and garlic then tossed with parsley) would pair well with the sweetness of the riesling.
What happened though was the strong flavors of the salad completely overwhelmed the wine making it taste watery and almost flavorless.
I had another glass after dinner and found it to be overly sweet for my taste and a bit one dimentional.
My husband refused to drink it. He didn’t like the way it smelled or tasted and thought it was too “sugary”.
So…sorry to say that this pick wasn’t a winner for us. But, the good news is that I did learn something about german wines from the link flickster provided. There were three other Schmitt Sohne Rieslings in the market like the link John Mace provided. The other three that weren’t Qba were more expensive ranging from 9.99 yo 14.99. I’m wondering how they compare.
BevMo only carried the less expensive version, which is what I bought. I’ll be drinking it later tonight with some Thai food.
One key difference between QbA and QmP is that the former is (or can be) from grapes picked at a less ripe stage (ie, with less sugar content) and sugar can be added before the fermentation process takes place*. The latter must use the sugars naturally occurring in the grapes as picked. Most people find that prodcues a better wine. I usually get a Kabinett Riesling (QmP) if I’m going to buy a German wine. Note the review for the Leitz Riesling from the this link that OpalCat gave us earlier-- I also picked up a bottle of the **Leitz **at BevMo ($17), and will try that some other time.
*a process called chaptalization
True, but grape juice concentrate or süssreserve can be pretty damn sweet.
I’ve had the Leitz several times. It’s a nice wine. A bit sweet, flowery and fruity.
I’ll look for this week’s pick soon. And last week’s too while I’m at it.
Sure. But my point was about the quality, not the sweetness level. They’re starting out with less sugars, so adding sugar won’t necessarily make the wine sweeter than that made from riper grapes. I’ve not had much chaptalized wine (that I know of!), so I’m not commenting myself-- just mentioning what others who have had it tend to think.
I noticed that this thread has less than 20 responses, but over 2,000 views. Lots of lurkers out there!
Gotcha.
And yea, that you know of, that would be key!
I’ve had some (we made some in class and added a hefty amount of cane sugar), and I thought it tasted perfectly fine. I know the general notion is it’s better if you don’t, but I say use all the tools available to you to make the best wine possible. It it happens to be sugar, so be it.