New poll on Netscape forum: Favorite summer sipper

[Robin Garr]

The latest poll on our Netscape WineLovers Community invites you to "vote" for your favorite wine for sipping on steamy summer days. You don't need to register or log in to vote for any of the ballot choices, but if you'd like to nominate a personal favorite or discuss the topic, you're welcome to chime in.

<b>Vote:</b> Favorite summer sipper

[David M. Bueker]

While I tried to be not too nasty over on the Netscape forum, your poll selections betray your personal bias against German Riesling. Off dry white is my favorite summer sipper, and that of many of my friends as well.

[Robin Garr]

While I tried to be not too nasty over on the Netscape forum, your poll selections betray your personal bias against German Riesling. Off dry white is my favorite summer sipper, and that of many of my friends as well.

I'm not sure it's a personal bias against German Rieslings, David, so much as a personal preference for the dry Franco-Italian style of wines in general. Glass half-empty, glass half-full.

Point is, though, given the limits of the Netscape polling system, I tried to come up with four or five very broad generic terms, and encourage folks to reply with specific nominations.

Guess I could have thrown in "off-dry whites," but I wouldn't have wanted to go as specific as an individual variety. And as I said over there, if I have a bias, it's toward avoiding sweetness in summer sippers - to me, there's a fine line between sweetness and cloying.

Hey ... start a similar poll on this forum, and YOU come up with a list!

[David M. Bueker]

And as I said over there, if I have a bias, it's toward avoiding sweetness in summer sippers - to me, there's a fine line between sweetness and cloying.

Any good wine with residual sugar needs adequate acidity for balance. I just find it funny that in almost any situation where a German Riesling might be an appropriate choice you end up excluding it. Of course not knowing what you can get in your market, maybe you just do not get the chance to taste the good stuff. Take your pick...ignorance or bias.

I like German Rieslings also, but it's not a summer sipper for me. It's a perennial sipper for me, even in the dead of winter. Muscadet I'll also drink whenever I can get my hands on it. I'll never turn down a good rosé either. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't really have a summer sipper because I'll drink the same stuff all year through. It's easier to reverse the question and say what I don't drink during the summer: usually no Rhones or Spaniards. Heavy Italian (Barolos) and French (Bandol, Bordeaux) reds I will drink, though.

[James Roscoe]

I agree with Otto. Rieslings (and bubblies) are year 'round sippers for me. Now Roses tend to be more of a summer thing.