2007 Riesling - Reif Estate Winery

OMG First Official Post (insert excited hand flapping)!!!
OK, let's start off by talking about what I'm drinking:
Label: Reif Estate Winery
Year: 2007
Type: Riesling
Where it was made: Niagara Peninsula - Niagra on the Lake(Oooooh Canadaaaa. You make very good wiiiine)
Price: It was a gift...
Where I got it:: My mom's liquor cabinet
Where you can probably find it:
Alcohol percentage: (for those who want to get drunk, but just don't seem to have the time.) 11.5%
Classification: Off-Dry Wine
Unimportant label details: there's a cool picture depicting the death of Tecumseh. Also, being conceived in Niagra earns it the oh-so-important VQA distinction
Taste rating (out of 10.0): 7.1 (yummm)
Quality rating (out of 10.0): 7.5 (claaaassy!)
overall comments: This, my friends, is no cheap glass of vin. It is way, way too good for me. It is probably wasted on my untrained and untalented palette. But it is YUMMY! I yoinked it from my mom's liquor cabinet over the weekend (she would never love it like I could) and for that reason I have no idea on the pricing, but I imagine it is probably pretty reasonable, as most wines from the Niagra Region tend to be.

I am a red girl. That is, I prefer red wine...I am never literally red unless forced to exercise. Nonetheless I do enjoy white wine, just usually not as much as red and never if it is dry enough to turn my innards into a desert. For that reason, I don't mind a Riesling. I like my white wine with a little sparkle! The year doesn't bother me, because I have been told that if Rieslings are allowed to age too much, they can start to taste like rubber or kerosene. This, I imagine, would taste similar to drinking a flaming pile of tires. Needless to say, most prefer their Riesling newer.

I like the sparkly aspect of the wine because it makes it tasty to drink, but I can totally understand how that would be offputting to some. Although it's always convenient, when on a strict time budget, to be able to chug a wine, I suppose a true wine lover would rather have something that's more complex and less sweet, to be consumed slowly and enjoyed. We are, after all, Winos, not soft drink enthusiasts (if for no other reason, because soft drink enthusiasts don't have a shorter, cooler way to refer to themselves. Wino is so much easier to say that soft drink enthusiast. Perhaps they should begin to call themselves SDE's?)

Regarding the label, this is the first wine I've tried by Reif Estates and I find it quite good, so if anyone else has tried Reif's other selections, please let me know what you thought. Overall, I would say this wine left me smiling...good quality wine in a pretty bottle that was made in my very own country :)

I should mention that I am going to break up these wine reviews with some little articles about StuWino culture that I think might be enjoyable. I would love to hear your comments on this or related wines. Feel free to comment on the Riesling, as well. Can anyone back me up on the kerosene theory for aged Rieslings?

Devotedly yours,
Austen

Coming soon...

Hi Everybody! (a.k.a. nobody)
I'm finishing up a bottle of Reisling now. You know what that means...
I'm drunk. Just kidding! It means my very first post will be coming soon. I'll be bringing you some fun, diary-style anecdotes about my life as a wino, but they will also come with a description of a wine I just tried, including the label, year, where it was made, where it can be found, and how I got a hold of it.

I should add that in NO way am I some kind of wine expert. Even though I drink a LOT of wine, I know better than to try to make myself out to be a professional wine taster. Professional wine tasters spit out the wine after they sample it, which I think is wasteful. Why don't you just go ahead and slap Dionysus in the face? Anyways, what I mean to say is that I won't be discussing the underlying smoky taste in the bouquet or anything like that. I will rate wines based on taste based on my instincts, rather than on any professional instruction I have never recieved in the area of wine tasting. If there ARE any people out there in internetland who do know a thing or two about wine and want to agree/disagree/yell at me based on my rating of a wine, please do. Prove me wrong. I love it. I'm a total masochist.

That being said, I have a quiz to fail tomorrow so I must run off and not study for it. Happy wine drinking!

Austen