*****The 2022 Bike Touring Wine Review - CHEESY RIDER - CycleBlaze

May 18, 2022

*****The 2022 Bike Touring Wine Review

Wisconsin Edition

A Quick Summary of My Wine Review History

  • I know very little about wine and rarely drink it.  However, I've enjoyed reading wine reviews in foodie magazines for many years.  I love the flowery language.
  • It was on my MN to MA tour that I got the idea to do a satirical review of a wine from the Lake Erie region.  In my own mind, it was a HUGE success.
  • The next year, I reviewed another local wine from Mississippi.  (Mississippi?  That's right--Mississippi.)  After that one, I had become such a bike touring wine celebrity that, in successive years, I reviewed wines from Ontario, Minnesota, North Dakota, Arizona, Iowa, Washington and Idaho.
  • It was on my Idaho tour that I made a huge mistake.  I did my first video wine review, and it didn't turn out so well.  My fans were so disgusted with my performance that I thought it might be best to allow the wine reviews to sink into oblivion.

Well, I'm Back By Popular Demand

Of course, "popular demand" can be a very subjective term.   Really, it can mean almost ANY number of demands.  The important thing here is what "popular demand" means to ME.  With that in mind, I'm going to offer a multiple choice quiz:

HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU THINK REQUESTED ANOTHER BIKE TOURING WINE REVIEW THIS YEAR?

  1. 2
  2. 10
  3. 50
  4. 100

(The answer will be revealed at the bottom of the page.)

The Review:

I don't know if this is true of wines from Europe or other continents, but it seems like the label of every American wine I've ever seen claims it has won some kind of award from some kind of wine tasting competition.  The Wisconsin wine I selected for this review is no exception.

Wollersheim Winery's Dry Reisling was named "Best White Wine of 2018" at the San Bernardino Wine Competition.  I don't know how prestigious the S.B.W.C. is in the wine world, but it really doesn't matter.  The bottle I purchased is a 2019 vintage--a year too late.

Nice bottle. Rieslings always seem to have a longer tapered neck than other wines. I do not know why.
Heart 2 Comment 1 Link
Keith KleinHi,
Tradition. Riesling grapes originated in the Rhine valley and the local glass works made bottles that were tall and thin. Americans are copy cats.
Cheers,
Keith
Reply to this comment
2 years ago

 One exciting thing about this wine review is that it is the first time I haven't done the tasting at a campsite.  This time I'm in a Waukesha motel room where it's warm and dry.  You could say my room is as dry as a Wollersheim Riesling.

The bottle was very easy to open. The screw cap was a nice touch.
Heart 1 Comment 2 Link
Keith KleinNot traditional. But less spoilage with screw caps.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Karen PoretTo Keith KleinThis feature ( screw cap) is so popular the Sebastiani family ( well one of them anyway) came up with “screw cappa Napa”…
Reply to this comment
1 year ago
And it was nice to be able to pour such a fine wine into a paper wine glass, courtesy of Choice Hotels.
Heart 1 Comment 0 Link

No doubt, the wine was liquidy.  And tasty.  And juicy.  And quaffable.  The tannins, bouquet, mouth feel, and swirliness were right in line with what you'd expect from a San Bernardino award winner from Wisconsin.

The label said it had "notes of anise, apple and lime."  Okey dokey.  MY sophisticated palate sensed hints of asparagus, starfruit, and mayonaisse.

Ah heck, it was so good I didn't really need the fancy wine cup. It's chuggable.
Heart 7 Comment 0 Link

The Answer to the Quiz

The correct answer is:

#1.  2

Rate this entry's writing Heart 9
Comment on this entry Comment 6
Nancy GrahamThere is NO end to your areas of expertise. Thank you for such an awe inspiring review of the Wollersheim. Now I feel validated for using a wind glass similar to yours ;’-).
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Gregory GarceauTo Nancy GrahamExpertise? Oh boy, I've never heard that word associated with ME before. Thank you.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Scott AndersonOnly two requests? I’ll have to remember this for your next tour, and get my vote in early. You should assemble them all into a wine review pamphlet and publish it, sort of like a Zagat’s catalog of little known labels suitable for chugging at the campsite. It’s so much harder now than when I was young and you only had to flip a coin to choose between Gallo and Red Ripple.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Gregory GarceauTo Scott AndersonIn the part of the country I lived in, we also had such stalwarts as Mogen David 20/20 and Boone's Farm.
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2 years ago
Keith KleinHi,
Well done. Impressive wine glass and drinking technique.
How to win a wine competition:
1. Make some wine.
2. Send it to a wine tasting competition. If your wine wins, great. If not repeat step two at smaller and smaller competitions until you win.
3. Make a label touting your win.
As a side note, in San Berdoo anything reasonably liquid tastes good.
Cheers,
Keith
Reply to this comment
2 years ago
Gregory GarceauTo Keith KleinAh, so that's how it works. Thank you Keith, as always, for your interesting wine information--especially the tidbit about the shape of Reisling bottles.
Reply to this comment
2 years ago