I’ve gone on record in previous wine club threads as preferring sweeter wines, so it doesn’t come as a shock to me that some people would find my favorites to be too far in that direction for their tastes. As for the wine being overwhelmed or tasting watery, I’ve found that often with spicy food + white wines in general. I generally won’t drink a white with spicy food for this reason–I can’t taste the wine! (This may not be a problem with a dry white, but as I don’t like those, I can’t say.)
This wine was too sweet for my palate. I had a few sips before dinner, and I was able to notice some nice citrusy flavor. But I think this is a good example of a wine that could use more acidity to balance out the residual sugar.
It did stand up well to the spicy Thai food, though. And it went pretty well with the chocolates* my girlfriend brought over for dessert.
Also, we “cheated” and had some of the Leitz, too. Very nice, and much better balance. But then, it’s 3x more expensive, too…
*Lindt dark, extra fine chocolate; 85% cocoa.
I like it best for the same reasons you thought it was lacking. Heh. I’m glad that there is so much variety in wines, because I think that my tastes fall into a minority, and if “the majority” were to tweak each wine until they thought it was perfect, there would be no wines that I enjoyed.
After the comments here, I was fully prepared to hate this wine. Although I am a huge fan of sweeter wines (I do some Sauternes collecting, and am a total Champagne whore), I was anticipating a White Zin-type approach. So, with great trepidation, I opened it last night and…
It wasn’t bad at all. I paired it with a salmon caesar salad and garlic bread. The sweetness of the wine offset the high acidity of the homemade (and heavy on the lemon) caesar dressing very nicely. I drank off the rest of the bottle after dinner, and I will say that it is substantially better with the food than without. I would definitely recommend drinking this wine with some acid-rich and slightly fatty food. Maybe a capellini with a lemon/butter/caper sauce or some mozzarella with balsamic vinegar.
That said, I have to concur with velvetjones’s criticism of the wine as “a bit one dimensional”. It’s just not a very interesting wine. It has the flavor in one range, but there are no exciting notes and pretty much no finish to speak of. It has a lot less character than the Rieslings I am used to drinking (and I drink a lot of Riesling).
Bottom line: I wouldn’t turn down a glass if offered to me, and I enjoyed the glasses I had with dinner, but for $7.99, I think there are other wines that are more unique and satisfying than this one.
I found a bottle of this last evening (the 2005 vintage) and have it chilling now. I plan to open it this evening
A few hours later, and I have settled down with a glass of this after dinner. It is not as sweet as I expected and has a nice. citrus flavor. The last riesling I had left a rather cloying aftertaste, but this one has a nice finish. All in all a nice refreshing after dinner wine.