What’s in the glass tonight March 10th

Vidal White Series Marlborough Dry Riesling 2010 – $

The great NZ Summer of Riesling continues: Pale and greenish-tinted; light weight, with some beading on the glass. This wine has lovely ‘twangy’ aromas of limes, and fresh citrus-y flavours and green apple skin in the mouth; balanced and delicious, a short finish. It’s dry, and does what it sez on the tin.

I see by the stickers it has been lauded by the Speiglau Competition and Cuisine Magazine, but I wonder if Vidals had to pay for their lauds. Almost the equal of the Villa Maria Dry Riesling I had earlier, and great value. You can pick up a bottle for as little as $12.

I drink wines that sit mostly at this end of the price scale. I seek out specials, and that is part of the fun. I will spend more on the stuff I stash under the house, so that when I get to open one of those bottles, I am rewarded with a richer taste, bouquet and complexity than I get from my usual. And then it becomes a bit of a special occasion.

But cheaper wines are not built like that. That’s ok: I think it is often nicer to quaff something easy and approachable, and not be always faced with a pedigreed wine that deserves attention and thought (like perhaps the Black Barn syrah of a few nights back), and gets in the way of an evening. Lance Armstrong said once that it wasn’t about the wine, or something like that…

So, I am usually operating from a low base. The wines I open up will often turn out to be quite appealing for many reasons, but I worry that I talk them up a bit too much.

It is all very well, hat tip Oscar Wilde, to lie in the gutter, but must you always see stars?