A Clean Slate

Some people just don’t get Riesling.  The Quiet Voice Man was visiting, and he’s a winemaker and wine judge – a good one too, I might mention.  He’s open to all sorts of wines, having tasted extensively for over three decades.  He loves sparkling wines and fine spicy reds, and what about Chardonnay?  He’s a prince among Chardonnay makers, his wines judged among the best in the country.  But Riesling he just doesn’t get.  He can judge and pronounce the good ones as good and the bad ones as bad.  However, he doesn’t enjoy the taste.  SWMBO and I understand intellectually his reasons, but find it incredible at the level of our souls!

We never realised this, until The Quiet Voice Man told us when we served what was something special, the 2012  Clemens Busch Pundericher Marienburg GG Riesling Trocken ‘Fahrlay’.  Afterall, he’s a special man.  But his glass of wine just didn’t go down.  SWMBO and I loved the richness and presence of the wine.  Clearly Riesling with maybe a little sulphide complexity.  Perfect acid balance, with soft freshness and gentle raciness.  The 13.0% alcohol in wonderful tune with the wine and body.  But the flavour of blue slate shone through.  Pure and clean.  We were in raptures.  The Quiet Voice Man saw our joy and pondered his tastes.  He said he’d approach Riesling again, with a clean slate.  But he admitted he couldn’t love it.  It was lucky for him we had some Chardonnays to enjoy afterwards.