Since I first tried Riesling at a winery in New York while I was in college, I have adored the grape. It is versatile and able to flourish in many different climates. It is always tangy and sweet – when it is dry, the tang is what bites the sides of your tongue; when it is fermented with more sugars, the sweetness of it tickles the back of your tongue. It is best served chilled, and when it is, it tastes like a sour apple jolly rancher.
One of my favorite Riesling growing areas is Washington. Though the grape is originally from the borderland between Germany and France, it thrives in the Columbia River valley of central Washington. This grape grows up around big, straight pines and hardwoods, it hears the rushing, cold waters of the Columbia River, and it is familiar with the thrilling delight that a warm sun can bring after a chilly night.
Knowing that this grape grows in rugged, scenic land is important when deciding how best to consume it. In all of my research, I believe I have stumbled on the best way to enjoy a bottle of Riesling from Washington. First, you get out of the city. If you live in a city in the northwestern part of the United States, then you already have an advantage, but any city close to a river that runs through a wooded area is fine. Drive out of the city, and get off the highway. Take the smaller back-roads until you find a crystal-clear, shallow, rushing, cold river or creek. Then hike along the river until you find a nice place to start a fire along the banks – preferably someplace where you can get a moderate amount of warm sunshine, but you have a few trees to block the wind.
Now, your first priority once you’ve found the perfect place to enjoy your wine is to make your wine the proper temperature. Take your bottle down to the creek-bed and find an eddy where you can leave your bottle without worrying that it will wash away. Once that is done, start your fire. Once your fire has some healthy, glowing embers and is emitting some real heat, take out the bratwurst you brought, skewer them on the straight stick you just whittled, and roast them in the fire. Once the skin in brown and just beginning to crack, put the brat on a potato-bread bun and put plenty of spicy brown mustard on it. By now, your wine should be chilled. Retrieve your wine from the creek and enjoy it with your brat.
Then enjoy another brat with your second glass.
Just imagine, you are enjoying the same wine and meal that an Alsatian family might have enjoyed on the banks of the Rhine hundreds of years ago. But you are in your own area of the world, enjoying it your way.
One of my favorite Riesling growing areas is Washington. Though the grape is originally from the borderland between Germany and France, it thrives in the Columbia River valley of central Washington. This grape grows up around big, straight pines and hardwoods, it hears the rushing, cold waters of the Columbia River, and it is familiar with the thrilling delight that a warm sun can bring after a chilly night.
Knowing that this grape grows in rugged, scenic land is important when deciding how best to consume it. In all of my research, I believe I have stumbled on the best way to enjoy a bottle of Riesling from Washington. First, you get out of the city. If you live in a city in the northwestern part of the United States, then you already have an advantage, but any city close to a river that runs through a wooded area is fine. Drive out of the city, and get off the highway. Take the smaller back-roads until you find a crystal-clear, shallow, rushing, cold river or creek. Then hike along the river until you find a nice place to start a fire along the banks – preferably someplace where you can get a moderate amount of warm sunshine, but you have a few trees to block the wind.
Now, your first priority once you’ve found the perfect place to enjoy your wine is to make your wine the proper temperature. Take your bottle down to the creek-bed and find an eddy where you can leave your bottle without worrying that it will wash away. Once that is done, start your fire. Once your fire has some healthy, glowing embers and is emitting some real heat, take out the bratwurst you brought, skewer them on the straight stick you just whittled, and roast them in the fire. Once the skin in brown and just beginning to crack, put the brat on a potato-bread bun and put plenty of spicy brown mustard on it. By now, your wine should be chilled. Retrieve your wine from the creek and enjoy it with your brat.
Then enjoy another brat with your second glass.
Just imagine, you are enjoying the same wine and meal that an Alsatian family might have enjoyed on the banks of the Rhine hundreds of years ago. But you are in your own area of the world, enjoying it your way.
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