Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Riesling, 2004 vintage
price: $9-$11
suggested food pairings: maple, sugar or honey marinated pork or fowl, sharp and/or pungent cheeses, sausages, ham

Riesling is the least-known of the noblest grapes. It comes to us from cooler climes, and can be bone dry or nectar sweet. It’s one of the few wines versatile enough to pair well with almost everything we typically serve on a holiday table in this country, but in its various forms it can be the perfect mate to a list that includes seared fois gras, cold-water raw oysters, and many dishes in between. It is truly my kind of wine. Riesling is a varietal that you should take the time to get to know, and this offering from Kendall-Jackson will provide a great springboard.

Riesling was made famous in Germany, and like that nation’s modern inhabitants, it tends to be lighthearted, yet somehow true to itself and direct (I know this because I have been married to one of the country’s descendants for 15 years). Generally speaking, Riesling will be light-bodied yet complex for the price. The very simplest examples are inexpensive, low in alcohol and sweet, while the finest examples have an explosive fruit and acid profile and show a finish that would shame many red wines.
 
The best examples in modern-day winemaking come from Northeastern France (those from Alsace are very dry), and the western United States. This California bottling from Kendall-Jackson is 85 percent Riesling, blended with a dollop of Gewürztraminer and a smidgeon of three other cool weather varieties that add complexity to the textbook flavor profile of the dominant ingredient. Clear yellow with green tinges, musky citrus, spicy peach, and apricot aromas swirled with floral notes tip you off to the dance going on in the glass. True to Riesling’s form, these scents materialize into flavors on your tongue in a complicated line dance—in sync and harmony, with no clear leader. The end result is a crisp but fruity wine sweet enough to handle sausage stuffing or ham, yet dry enough to compliment the sliced turkey. Since Riesling is such a value, I suggest you get this one and one other to taste side-by-side with a small group.

Craig L. Pierce can be reached at craig_l_pierce[at]hotmail[dot]com.