2005 Wegeler Kabinett Riesling

This past Tuesday, my wife came home after a rough day at work and asked for a bottle of wine to go with dinner. We were having Country Captain soup for dinner, which a curried chicken based soup with all sorts of other goodies in it like apple, red peppers, raisins, and onions. For dessert we were having some banana bread and mix fruit. As the soup has a sweetness to it from the apples and raisins, I decided that a dry wine wouldn’t be the best match and looked to something off dry.

"Good wine, shitty label"

I decided a Riesling would be a good match but wasn’t in the mood for my usual stand-by Riesling by Robert Mondavi. I looked over the wines in the new wine fridge and came across a 2005 Wegeler Kabinett Riesling. I’ll be honest here and couldn’t remember much about picking this wine. Looking at the label I figured it couldn’t be more than a $20 Riesling and thought ‘what the heck let’s give this a try’.

I poured out a glass and gave the wine a quick nose and really wasn’t getting much off of it. I want back to the kitchen without trying the wine and putter around getting dinner ready.

A few minutes later, Kathy sat down at the table, took a sip and exclaimed ‘Oh wow, this isn’t bad at all!’

I served up the soup, sat down and joined her. I nosed the wine again and my eyes opened wide in shock – the wine had really opened up and I was getting a really nice citrus and petrol aroma off of the wine now. Tasting the wine was real treat as well - very nicely balanced, a zesty citrus flavour to it and a beautiful finish.

Now I was a little worried that I had grabbed a much higher priced bottle than I wanted for a middle of the week wine. This was quickly followed up by the thought ‘Oh well, too late to cry about it now!’

It went really well with the soup. It went surprisingly well with the banana bread, melon chunks and strawberries but got real funky with the pineapple - all in all a great little wine.

Here is the LCBO Infromation on this wine -

Wegeler Riesling Kabinett 2005

VINTAGES 650994
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 29.70
Wine, White Wine
8.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : MD
Made in: Moselle/Saar/Ruwer, Germany
By: Geheimrat J. Wegeler Erben
Release Date: Jul 21, 2007

Tasting Note - Ripe and juicy, with tangerine, lime and mineral aromas and flavors. Shuts down a little, needing time to integrate, yet all the components are in the right place. Finishes long. Best from 2008 through 2018. Score - 92. (Bruce Sanderson, www.winespectator.com, Feb-07).

I was pleased that the wine was ‘only’ $29; by how it tasted I was expecting that figure to be closer to $50 a bottle. I was amazed to see that there were still some bottles left in the province and I will be picking up a few more bottles of this wine.

Cheers!

Mark