11/21/05 – Riesling
Enophiles,
The word of the week is “enophile” (also “oenophile”), meaning “one who appreciates and enjoys wine.” I think that rather permissive definition probably applies to all of us. A second meaning is “one who collects wine.” Ummmmm…… maybe in a decade or so. Right now it’s too tasty to not drink it.
Tuesday evening we’ll be doing Riesling, one of the best white wines in the entire world, grown traditionally in cool regions in France, Germany and Austria. “Riesling wines from Germany are traditionally sweet to medium sweet, but those from Alsace (France) and Austria tend to be dry or just off-dry….In North America, Riesling is usually grown in cooler regions, such as Northern California and New York, and shows promise in the Pacific Northwest. It is also grown in cooler regions of New Zealand and South Africa, and the quality is improving significantly in the New World as more suitable sites are found, better quality vines are planted, and the vines age.” Thank you, wikipedia.
Riesling is apparently one of the grape varieties considered best able to demonstrate the particular terroir of the place it was grown, so we may be likely to see a lot of variation between our samples, even within the same region. This is a concept we discussed last week, so all of you bitches better be ready to talk about terrior all night long, got it?
We had a question from one of our newer members whether we prefer for people to bring a bottle of wine or just some cash for reimbursement. What’s been happening lately is that we’ve generally been drinking all of the bottles that have been provided, and not even having to deal with cash. So I say yeah, err on the side of wine, and if we have too much at the end, one or two bottles can just be brought home by their contributors. As long as no one manages to see that their bottle gets spared every week, thus ensuring that they could drink for free, this system should work out just fine. Is that ok with everybody? We can talk about it at the meeting. Please feel free to let me know if you feel like you’re ever getting sheisted.
For those who haven’t been to our charming little villa in Sherman Oaks, the address is (noooooo). It’s in between Ventura and Moorpark, near Coldwater Canyon. Walk around the right side of the house and up the stairs. There’s usually plenty of street parking. We have a shit-ton of wine glasses, so no need to bring your own. Just bring your bad selves and any articles you may have found about Riesling… remember how we used to say that we were going to read articles and discuss them at the beginning of each meeting? Nice job on that one, slackers. Lets see if we can get that going.
Let me know if you have questions…. otherwise, see you all tomorrow night.
Jesse