BLOGS

While sipping one of our local crisp, refreshing Rieslings one recent warm evening and thinking about the foods we enjoy with this versatile wine, these words formed in my mind and showed up in verse on my ever-present computer. And I've never said I was a great poet.

Ode To Riesling

I love thee with Thai pork in peanut sauce
Tom Yum, or spicy curry, green
And bratwurst paired with cabbage and sauteed
With apple, onion, hint of caraway
Or chicken/apple salad, spicy shrimp
Thy versatility doth know no bounds.

Local wineries are producing some delicious Rieslings, along with spicy Gewurztraminer. These wines are very food friendly and go well with a warm summer day or evening, and complement a variety of foods. The sweeter ones pair better with spicier or sweeter dishes. Most of the wines are at least off-dry, although some are very dry and appeal to those who don't care for the sweeter style.

Some of the local wines I know and can remember:
Bella Terrazza
Boudreaux Cellars
Crayelle Cellars
Eagle Creek Winery
Jones of Washington
Karma
La Toscana
Mellisoni
Nefarious
Okanogan Estates
Saint Laurent Winery
Tsillan Cellars
Vin du Lac
Wedge Mountain Winery

All the Riesling and/or Gewurztraminer from these wineries come in varying degrees of sweetness, from dry to very sweet. The IRF www.drinkriesling.com has a scale of degrees of sweetness which some wineries are now using, so the buyer of a Riesling has some idea of the residual sugar present in the wine.

I'll leave it to you to discover which ones of our local wines you prefer. After all, as Pliny the Elder said way back in 23-79 A.D, and as Cameron Fries of White Heron reminds us, "The best kind of wine is that which is most pleasant to him who drinks it."

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