| Riefle' Tasting at Beverage City |
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Olivia Dubost from Riefle', a winery from Alsace, France, paid
us a visit at the Beverage City at Park and the North Dallas
Tollway this past Saturday. Olivia, along with Andrew from the
wine importer, Serendipity wines, and Shawn O'Connor, the
wine director for that Beverage City store, hosted our tasting.
It was quite interesting to hear Olivia tell the stories and
thought process that went into the making of each the wines.
She and Andrew had four different varietals lined up for us to
sample:
Riefle' 2005 Pinot Blanc - A light colored and bodied wine with
nice crisp acidity. Great with shellfish and for hot summer
sipping!
Riefle' 2005 Riesling - A great all around food wine that could
tackle the likes of Asian cuisine, including Thai, Chinese and
Sushi as well many different everyday food.
Riefle' 2004 Pinot Gris - A nice well-rounded wine with a
medium sized body and great mouth feel and fruit. This was
probably my favorite of the four and I don't think I would even
need food to drink it with!
Riefle' 2003 Gewürztraminer - A full-bodied, spicy and floral
wine that is just begging to be served with spicy and
full-flavored food and cuisines like Indian and Thai.
I would tell you which one was a crowd favorite, but apparently
all four were preferred by different people for a variety of
reasons. Some really like the Pinot Blanc because it was light
and pleasing. Some loved the way the Pinot Gris tasted. By
the way, Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape. Gris
and Grigio are the French and Italian names for the color gray.
The Gewürztraminer, which held the distinction in our tasting as
the grape varietal most commonly butchered by people trying
pronounce it, had such a bold personality that people were
either huge fans of it or did not like it at all. I was in the big fan
camp!
However, the wine varietal that provided us with the most
entertainment of the day was the Riesling. Oh how the
Germans have done so much to ruin the reputation of this, one
of the most noble of grape varietals, with it's proliferation of
sickly sweet cheap versions of Rieslings. The truth of the
matter is that in Alsace, this is one of if not the most driest wine
varietals made there. Time and time again, people would come
up and say, "Oh no thank you, I really don't like sweet wines
like Riesling!" And Olivia would have to say, "Just try this, it
is very dry." Sure enough, upon sampling the wine they would
be stunned that it tasted nothing like they imagined. It actually
became quite comical to witness after awhile. I am also happy
to report that many that stated they did not like Riesling wines,
walked away from the store with a bottle or two of Riefle'
Rieslings in their bags.
Aside from tasting the wines, we had another agenda to our
tasting. Beverage City was handing out 20% discount cards for
all wines in the store to anyone that belonged to the Dallas
Secret Wine Society. These cards can be used any time at this
location only, but this store has one of the best selections of
wines in the metroplex. Many people did not wait to use their
card, instead they got started right away filling up their
shopping carts. By the way, if you were not able to
make the tasting Saturday, Shawn still has some cards
and there are a few of these wines left to be purchased
at a discount. Stop by and see Shawn, Tuesday thru
Saturday to get yours!
We also made some new friends and they signed up to become
new members. We will be looking forward to seeing them at
our upcoming events. One of the highlights of the day is when,
wine club member, Carlos and Olivia engaged in a serious
conversation entirely in French. Everyone stopped what they
were doing and stood around to listen to them. It was both fun
and interesting, even though none of us had any idea what they
were saying. Unless of course it was a French wine region, I'm
afraid that is the extent of my knowledge of the French
language. Carlos, you stud! We had no idea you could speak it
that well!
I would really like to thank the following people, if it were not
for them, this event would have never happened. Olivia for
putting her time in and gracing us with her lovely and
passionate presentation of the Riefle' wines. Andrew from
Serendipity for making all the arrangements with Beverage
City and getting the wines there. Wendie of Beverage City,
who has always been good to the Dallas Secret Wine Society
over the past four years, for making the event happen and of
course Shawn for his tireless work and effort to make this event
a success. And thank you to everyone that showed up and
supported us for the event. You have no idea how much that
meant to me! Great job all!
us a visit at the Beverage City at Park and the North Dallas
Tollway this past Saturday. Olivia, along with Andrew from the
wine importer, Serendipity wines, and Shawn O'Connor, the
wine director for that Beverage City store, hosted our tasting.
It was quite interesting to hear Olivia tell the stories and
thought process that went into the making of each the wines.
She and Andrew had four different varietals lined up for us to
sample:
Riefle' 2005 Pinot Blanc - A light colored and bodied wine with
nice crisp acidity. Great with shellfish and for hot summer
sipping!
Riefle' 2005 Riesling - A great all around food wine that could
tackle the likes of Asian cuisine, including Thai, Chinese and
Sushi as well many different everyday food.
Riefle' 2004 Pinot Gris - A nice well-rounded wine with a
medium sized body and great mouth feel and fruit. This was
probably my favorite of the four and I don't think I would even
need food to drink it with!
Riefle' 2003 Gewürztraminer - A full-bodied, spicy and floral
wine that is just begging to be served with spicy and
full-flavored food and cuisines like Indian and Thai.
I would tell you which one was a crowd favorite, but apparently
all four were preferred by different people for a variety of
reasons. Some really like the Pinot Blanc because it was light
and pleasing. Some loved the way the Pinot Gris tasted. By
the way, Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape. Gris
and Grigio are the French and Italian names for the color gray.
The Gewürztraminer, which held the distinction in our tasting as
the grape varietal most commonly butchered by people trying
pronounce it, had such a bold personality that people were
either huge fans of it or did not like it at all. I was in the big fan
camp!
However, the wine varietal that provided us with the most
entertainment of the day was the Riesling. Oh how the
Germans have done so much to ruin the reputation of this, one
of the most noble of grape varietals, with it's proliferation of
sickly sweet cheap versions of Rieslings. The truth of the
matter is that in Alsace, this is one of if not the most driest wine
varietals made there. Time and time again, people would come
up and say, "Oh no thank you, I really don't like sweet wines
like Riesling!" And Olivia would have to say, "Just try this, it
is very dry." Sure enough, upon sampling the wine they would
be stunned that it tasted nothing like they imagined. It actually
became quite comical to witness after awhile. I am also happy
to report that many that stated they did not like Riesling wines,
walked away from the store with a bottle or two of Riefle'
Rieslings in their bags.
Aside from tasting the wines, we had another agenda to our
tasting. Beverage City was handing out 20% discount cards for
all wines in the store to anyone that belonged to the Dallas
Secret Wine Society. These cards can be used any time at this
location only, but this store has one of the best selections of
wines in the metroplex. Many people did not wait to use their
card, instead they got started right away filling up their
shopping carts. By the way, if you were not able to
make the tasting Saturday, Shawn still has some cards
and there are a few of these wines left to be purchased
at a discount. Stop by and see Shawn, Tuesday thru
Saturday to get yours!
We also made some new friends and they signed up to become
new members. We will be looking forward to seeing them at
our upcoming events. One of the highlights of the day is when,
wine club member, Carlos and Olivia engaged in a serious
conversation entirely in French. Everyone stopped what they
were doing and stood around to listen to them. It was both fun
and interesting, even though none of us had any idea what they
were saying. Unless of course it was a French wine region, I'm
afraid that is the extent of my knowledge of the French
language. Carlos, you stud! We had no idea you could speak it
that well!
I would really like to thank the following people, if it were not
for them, this event would have never happened. Olivia for
putting her time in and gracing us with her lovely and
passionate presentation of the Riefle' wines. Andrew from
Serendipity for making all the arrangements with Beverage
City and getting the wines there. Wendie of Beverage City,
who has always been good to the Dallas Secret Wine Society
over the past four years, for making the event happen and of
course Shawn for his tireless work and effort to make this event
a success. And thank you to everyone that showed up and
supported us for the event. You have no idea how much that
meant to me! Great job all!