I am starting to taste a lot of organic wines. But you won’t see many of them in this column for one very good (actually very bad) reason. Organic wines tend to cost more than other wines. So when I saw this bottle I snapped it up. Actually, I’m sort of cheating. The bottle cost under but it’s only 500 milliliters, 2/3 the size of a regular wine bottle. So I took smaller sips.
FrogPond Farm is Ontario, Canada’s only certified organic winery. They don’t use insecticides, herbicides, synthetic fungicides or chemical fertilizers and even their electricity is green. So I thought that it was only fair to give them a chance. And I’m usually happy to taste Rieslings.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed:
Frogpond Farm Organic Riesling, 2006 12.2% alcohol about .50
Let’s start with the marketing materials.
Description: Our Quality Assurance Laboratory has determined that this wine contains 6 mg/L of free sulphur. Tasting Note: Made in an almost Alsatian style, this is a racy/fresh version of Riesling. Nose is of orange marmalade, green apple, mineral and lime. Dry, very clean and fresh, with good fruit/mineral replays on the mid-palate. Needs 2-4+ years, or try it tonight with a Cajun catfish, or, if you eschew spice, grilled salmon steaks. (VINTAGES panel, Feb. 2009). And now for my review.
The cork crumbled as I was opening the bottle. I wasn’t impressed, I can’t remember the last time that happened. I started by sipping this wine alone. The first sips were long, moderately sweet with balanced acidity. I started with schmalz herring (a fat herring) in oil.
The wine was appley with good acidity. The meal itself was a hot-weather, don’t turn on the oven ensemble of reheated sweet and sour barbecued chicken wings, potatoes, and a good helping of salsa. The wine picked up strength with the wings. It had a lot of body for a white wine. But it couldn’t quite keep up with a spicy tomato, garlic, pepper, and lime salsa. It weakly, or semi-weakly able to put out the moderate fire. And there was no lime in the Riesling to accompany the salsa’s lime.
The second meal was fried liver and onions. This time I tasted lime in the wine and there were apple notes as well. The wine managed to remove some of the livery taste of the liver. It was more forceful with green beans in tomato sauce.
The final meal consisted of a roasted Atlantic salmon steak in soy and maple sauce accompanied by rice. The Riesling displayed bright acidity but was somewhat thin and not a lot of fruit came through. Dessert was better. With a high-quality vanilla ice cream bar covered in dark chocolate the wine showed nice acidity and sweetness with some fruit.
I finished the tasting with two cheeses. With a Havarti the wine was too acidic. With an Emmenthaler (Swiss) the wine’s acidity was balanced and the nuttiness of the cheese came through.
Final verdict. I’m just not sure. I usually liked this wine but given the small bottle, it isn’t really a bargain wine. Honestly, I never would have guessed that it’s organic but I think that’s the way organic wines are supposed to be.
Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian, French, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and spend time with his wife and family. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. Among his many web sites he is particularly proud of his new love and relationships site celebrating mostly spiritual and on occasion physical love at http://www.loveamourlove.com. You will find a wide range of articles devoted to various aspects of love, and a special collection of love quotes in both English and French (with translations.) Check out his global wine website at http://www.theworldwidewine.com with his weekly column reviewing wines and his new sections writing about (theory) and tasting (practice) organic and kosher wines.
The first 8 minutes of Riesling, Episode 6 of Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course. www.jancisrobinson.com to buy the full five-hour set of the multi-award-wining tv series Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course. The sixth episode of Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course – a beautifully filmed tour of the world of wine presented and written by Jancis Robinson and based on dozens of stunning locations in four continents. Each of the ten half-hour programmes is centred on a major grape variety or theme but provides a complete wine education including how wine is made, tasted, stored and enjoyed. See more at www.JancisRobinson.com – updated daily and the only place you’ll find all of the Oxford Companion to Wine and all of the World Atlas of Wine maps online. For my money, the site worth paying for is www.jancisrobinson.com’ – LA Times survey of wine websites. A 2-disc PAL version of the DVD is available from Amazon UK. It is distributed by B-motion of Holland in Europe.
Video Rating: 4 / 5