My two favorite little mongrels
I was jonesing for a glass of wine Friday night, so I hurried into the local wine shop, which is right next to doggy daycare, aka The Happiest Place on Earth, intending to snag the first bottle I could find under $20. But I stumbled right into a wine tasting. Um, yes please.
Two reds and a white were on hand; one of the reds may have been from the Rhone, but since I neglected to write them down they fell out of my head. We tasted the white one last so I expected an unctuous, sweet dessert wine. Not this bright pop, like a confetti explosion on New Year’s Eve. It made me do that thing I try not to do in public–moan aloud because the wine was that good.
Like many Rieslings from Alsace, this Kuentz-Bas was not at all sweet. It fools you for a second because of all the things that happen in your mouth. Sometimes, it’s tricky distinguishing if a wine is merely fruit forward or if it’s actually sweet, meaning it contains a certain amount of residual sugar in it.
This wine is one of that’s definitely dry (little if any residual sugar) but seriously fruit-forward with a bit of green apple and lots of stone fruit. Plus, a touch of minerality, a smidgen of saltiness, and that refreshing, mouth-cleansing acidity. This wine could wash away the stickiest BBQ sauce clinging to your gums. And it paired superbly with the tempera I had with dinner.
So, everyone needs to go buy this wine, especially if you don’t like Rieslings because they’re “sweet.” This one will wow that crap out of you.
Wine: Kuentz-Bas
Grape: Riesling
Appellation: Alsace AOC
Region: Alsace, France
Year: 2010
Alcohol: 12.5%
Cost: $17
