Two Rieslings

As part of the Wine 101 class I teach at IUSB, we sampled two German rieslings last night. The first was a St. Christopher Piesporter Michelsberg QbA, 2001. Very nice floral notes and a lush mouthfeel. Slightly sweet (halbtrocken most likely, although the bottle did not say so). Delicious, and a definite "would buy again." 85 points on the WineGeek scale. To demonstrate the ripeness difference, we also sampled the Schmitt Sohne Riesling Kabinette, 2002. The nose demonstrated more fruits, particularly apple and pear. A bit more "zing," if you will. The wine had a much creamier mouthfeel, and was just as delicious as the Piesporter. Again, another "would buy again" and 85 points. What is always interesting to me is in the class of 24 students, we have a bit of wine left over after the 1oz pours are distributed. So, at the end of class I invite students to help themselves to additional samples. They made a beeline for the two Rieslings, passing up the Dolcetto d'Aqui and the Montepulciano d'Abruzzi that served as our other two samples. It seems these delightful and inexpensive Rieslings were a hit with the class. They may be a hit with you as well.