SF Chronicle Article On Rieslings

Here's the article:

Refreshing German Rieslings are sweet, but not to a fault. W. Blake Gray, Chronicle Staff Writer, Thursday, July 6, 2006

The article doesn't say too much, but I kind of take exception to the following:

"German wines require learning not just new words, but new concepts. The most important is ripeness level -- grapes for Auslese wines are riper than those for Spatlese, so the wines are sweeter(emphasis added). Kabinett grapes are less ripe than Spatlese."

Certainly the grapes may be riper the higher up the Prädikat ladder one climbs and this may mean relatively more sugar. Still in all, it doesn't mean that the grapes are not vinified to dryness with the resultant wines not being sweet.

What say you, oh Riesling experts and Liebhaber?

[David M. Bueker]

AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE it when some cheap hack tries to simplify German Riesling. They invariably get it wrong (or at least party wrong) and actually make it more complicated.

I don't care how "resepcted" the author might be. When it comes to German Riesling he's a cheap hack.

I won't harp on the technical issue that it's not ripeness that is measured but sugar content (they are different things...you would think a guy from CA would know that).

And there does not have to be any relationship between sugar content and final sugar. Some producers make auslesen that have lower residual unmentionable than other's spatlese. Then there's the acid issue. It's all about balance. Leitz Dragonstone (a QbA) has some of the highest residual sugar around, but all that buffering material makes it balanced. Then give the wines a year or two from the vintage (something not hard to do in wine shops where 2002s are still lying around) and the sugar, acid and extract come together in an even less sweet tasting, integrated whole.

AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ach du liebe Schande, David, I didn't want to send you careening into a Charlie-Brown-Lucy-has-yanked-the-football-again Urschrei!

and also the opportunity to voluntarily downgrade (say from auslese to spatlese).
If the audience is a very general one, then it would have been a decent approximation a few years ago, but the recent trend for dry wines has thrown that generalisation out of the water.

[David M. Bueker]

and also the opportunity to voluntarily downgrade (say from auslese to spatlese).
If the audience is a very general one, then it would have been a decent approximation a few years ago, but the recent trend for dry wines has thrown that generalisation out of the water.

Ain't that the truth...

Just remember , Guys...the Chronicle is now owned by the Hearst Corporation; famous for the use of yellow journalism.

Anymore, I take anything I read in that paper with a large grain of salt.

Too bad....it was once a very well written paper.

Thank goodness I was away and did not have to read this drivel.
Mind you, I might have posted it and said "here is an interesting article" without reading it. LOL.

Are you insinuating that this article was for the birds?

Very droll!! So which species?

Bob, these are goslings, but I couldn't tell you what kind. I didn't see any bottles of vodka, so I'm assuming they're not Grey Geese. One did keep hanging an "eh" at the end of his sentences, so my suspicion is that they are Canadian Geese.

[James Roscoe]

They look like Canadian Geese to me. Although they now breed up and down the east coast. Like many Canadians, they can't stand the cold weather in Canada so they flock to the U.S.

Did you all know that the Canada goose has been split again. We now have the Cackling Goose which is the smallest sub-species around. They migrate through here on their way north, so could be seen on the east coast maybe?

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/cackling_goose.htm

If one scrolls down, there are also some nice images of Ross Goose and Snow Goose. Glad I have your attention!!!!!

Just remember , Guys...the Chronicle is now owned by the Hearst Corporation; famous for the use of yellow journalism.

Anymore, I take anything I read in that paper with a large grain of salt.

Too bad....it was once a very well written paper.

Err... How long ago would that have been? Recall Tom Lehrer's quip on TWTWS: "A considerable amount of commotion was stirred up during the past year over the prospect of a Multi-Lateral Force, known to the headline writers as MLF. Much of this discussion took place during the baseball season so the Chronicle may not have covered it..."

That pretty much sums up my experience with the Comical. I used to read it mostly for Art Hoppe and the comics.

Mark Lipton

[David M. Bueker]

Just remember , Guys...the Chronicle is now owned by the Hearst Corporation; famous for the use of yellow journalism.

Anymore, I take anything I read in that paper with a large grain of salt.

Too bad....it was once a very well written paper.

Err... How long ago would that have been? Recall Tom Lehrer's quip on TWTWS: "A considerable amount of commotion was stirred up during the past year over the prospect of a Multi-Lateral Force, known to the headline writers as MLF. Much of this discussion took place during the baseball season so the Chronicle may not have covered it..."

That pretty much sums up my experience with the Comical. I used to read it mostly for Art Hoppe and the comics.

Mark Lipton

Why shouldn't they have nuclear warheads? England says no, but they all are soreheads...

Tom Lehrer, the original politically incorrect comic.

Just remember , Guys...the Chronicle is now owned by the Hearst Corporation; famous for the use of yellow journalism.

Anymore, I take anything I read in that paper with a large grain of salt.

Too bad....it was once a very well written paper.

Err... How long ago would that have been? Recall Tom Lehrer's quip on TWTWS: "A considerable amount of commotion was stirred up during the past year over the prospect of a Multi-Lateral Force, known to the headline writers as MLF. Much of this discussion took place during the baseball season so the Chronicle may not have covered it..."

That pretty much sums up my experience with the Comical. I used to read it mostly for Art Hoppe and the comics.

Mark Lipton

The owners of the SF Chronicle sold out to the Hearst Corporation August 6, 1999.

I was a very sad day in journalistic credibility.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/08/07/MN58756.DTL