Oh Dear!

Asimov's panel (NYT September 30, 2009) judged American Rieslings blind and the best among the Finger Lakes entries placed a distant fourth, Frank's Dry 07. The first two were from the Northwest , Chateau Ste. Michelle-Dr. Loosen Eroica 07 and, the Best Value, Hogue Columbia Valley 07. The world is not supposed to be this way.

[David M. Bueker]

I am not surprised the Eroica did very well. It's flawless and soulless.

Dan..Pray tell, pls explain why the world is not supposed to be this way? Do you really think that Dr Frank and Hermann make the best American Reislings? I like both of them but they don't hold a candle to dozens, if not more, German reislings, and I am not surprised to see Eroica finish ahead of them in a somewhat "damning with faint praise " category, ie, best American reislings. Charles Shaw, not to be confused with 2 buck chuck, is a winemaker from Washington who has been getting quite a bit of favorable press recently so not all that surprising that his somewhat uniquely named wine was placed ahead of the FL wines..Also, Asimov doesn't name all of the Cal reislings who didn't make the cut, there were 5 of them in the first place..That is a pretty small sampling , considering the number of reislings from Monterey and up North, from Anderson Valley.. also, Climatewise, Washington can certainly compete with Finger lakes weather. Over the years, I have found the reislings from Navarro , for example, to be better than anything I have tasted from the Finger lakes..and that is just one example and just my opinion..By and large, I enjoy some Finger lakes reislings as well as other American reislings but they really are not as good as what can be found in the vast ocean of terrific German reislings that are avaiiable. just my 2 cents

Charles Shaw, not to be confused with 2 buck chuck, is a winemaker from Washington who has been getting quite a bit of favorable press recently so not all that surprising that his somewhat uniquely named wine was placed ahead of the FL wines..

To set a minor name mix-up straight: The Washington Riesling (Kung Fu Girl) was made by Charles Smith; the Shaw Riesling listed was from the Finger Lakes, and was made by Steve Shaw.

[David M. Bueker]

For the record, I think that Weimer (drier styles) and Navarro (sweeter/dessert styles) make the best Rieslings in the USA. Weimer can hold a candle to German Rieslings in the very good QbA category (which is stylisticially essentially what they are), and Navarro's Cluster Select Late Harvest Riesling can go toe to toe with German TBAs. I've witnessed such success first hand in two separate blind tastings.

I am not surprised the Eroica did very well. It's flawless and soulless.

Pretty much my take on this wine....expected better from DrLoosen.
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

Oh I don't know Tom - Ernie Loosen is making his own wines even more flawless and solless as the years go by (IMO).

My favorite Finger Lakes Riesling to date was a Wiemer dry Riesling. ('i' before 'e' is the correct spelling) I also have been impressed with a Chateau St. Michelle Cold Creek Vineyard Riesling as a Northwest entrant but haven't compared them side by side.

an excellent reisling, IMO, from NY but not from the Finger Lakes, is the Paumonock reisling..from the North fork of LI, ..They also make a dry reisling that I did not like, your mileage may vary

I did enjoy the Wiemer dry Rieslings when up in the Finger Lakes with David for the FL/German tasting last fall. Wiemer makes some lovely wines and I was also quite taken by his Gewurztraminer.

That said I've had very few other US Rieslings that really impressed me, and have found most of the Washington State ones like Ch. Ste. Michelle and Eroica quite bland and monotonic. (I would be interested to see how those wines fared in a tasting of New World Rieslings; I feel that Australia and New Zealand are doing some far more interesting things with Riesling these days.)