Somewhere amidst the fog of sleep deprivation, we managed to open our first Alsatian wine, the riesling, from Trimbach. Pretty amazing that they’ve been making wine since 1626! It was exactly what I had hoped it to be- delicious!

I poured myself a glass of the wine first. It was super pale yellow, very little color at all. I took my first sniff of the wine and said “It smells like riesling”. Genius, I know. But it smelled exactly as I remembered riesling to smell, despite not having had any from anywhere in a good long while. So then I got out my aroma wheel in order to be more specific. It was fresh and fruity, like peaches and a little pineapple. Later, as it warmed up I thought I sensed a bit of honey too.

Finally, I took a sip. Yum! The first thing that struck me was the acidity, not overly so, but very crisp. I thought it tasted like lemons and as the wine warmed up, changed to more of a grapefruit flavor. It also had a nice minerality to it, and was even a tad floral. I found myself drinking the wine rather quickly, partly because it was just so darn refreshing, and also because I was tasting, scribbling notes on a little piece of paper and cooking dinner all at once during the brief interlude I had from baby-duty.

I started with this wine because not only do I have a soft spot for riesling (after all those years of drinking Chateau St. Michelle- I should try theirs again...), but this was a wine that was specifically recommended (down to the vintage) as the one to try as a representation of Alsatian wines by Kevin Zraly in his book. That’s a lot of pressure for one little wine, but it did not disappoint. We’re wishing that we had room in one of our wine fridges to stock up on this wine- especially at only $16.99 per bottle.

K&L has a lot of notes on this wine, and I wasn’t terribly off base with my assessment. The peaches and the mineral note, especially on the finish are mentioned, as is the citrus, and specifically the lemon taste. It does have an elevated level of acidity, 7.9%. I was also glad to see that pineapple was mentioned in the notes, because that’s not something I had expected to smell for some reason.

The score: ★★★★