Bone-dry meaning is completely lost. Major rant. Riesling. Again.

Oh, boy, am I gonna get it in the neck for this one. And I’m not even drunk, either, but I am pissed off. Those of you who get worked up over my Riesling rants, please read no further because this is the f-ing ultimate one.

Yesterday I had the 2018 Kuentz-Bas Riesling from Alsace. On the actual label from producer (or importer Kermit Lynch, I don’t know who made up the fictional descriptors), the dryness scale arrow is pegged to the left. Like hard. Take a look at picture - it kinda can’t go much more left than that. Then I read Wine.com’s description:

“Bone-dry on the palate, it features intense clean aromas with excellent minerality.”

OK. From importer Kermit Lynch’s own website:

“Dry, steely Riesling”

It’s like I’m in Jacob’s Ladder or something where I’m the only one who sees the everyday monsters. “Oh, it’s because you’re mistaking alcohol levels for sweetness”. No, I’m not. It’s sugar - pure and simple. This is obviously sweet to everyone who has more than one taste bud and hasn’t been living under a German/Alsatian Riesling tank all their lives. In no universe on this galaxy, or from under any rock, does this classify as “bone-dry”.

It would all be fine if they hadn’t taken my really hard-earned money yet again by using those buzzers: bone-dry, steely, etc - only to then serve up syrup. I’ll take their word for it being “mineral” and having “clean aromas”, because all I tasted was sugar, thanks. I mean, this is Kermit Lynch for chrissakes - if we can’t trust professionals to know what bone-dry means, then what hope is there for humanity?

But this annoyance is good. It makes the objectives crystal clear moving forward. From now, I will dedicate my life, my faculties and my strength to the the production of bone-dry Rieslings! [wink.gif]




At a certain point, the problem is with you, not with the labels. After only about the millionth complaint, you should know now that wines labeled as dry can still contain residual sugar.

Whether or not you think the labeling is too liberal is one thing. But at this point, if you’re not getting actual residual sugar data before making riesling purchasing decisions, then you have no one to blame but yourself, so this rant rings a little hollow.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me about 30 times, and I’ll make an entire post about how many times I’ve let myself be fooled?

OK, riddle me this - how do you get RS info? You can’t reliably. If I could, problem would be solved. But as of now, they’re stealing my money by labeling a wine with a meter that pegs to complete dryness, using words like bone-dry in descriptors, when it’s obviously not.

Then reach out to the winery directly.

You’ve had your money “stolen” over and over again. Stop getting your money stolen.

Or better, drink more of the wines from producers who do produce your favored bone dry styles. Trimbach, for one.

My Riesling is a zero zero and unfiltered…

I love the dry Rieslings of the Clare Valley for instance. But if you speak with some of the old-timers, they will tell you that you need just a little RS for the wine to age. Otherwise you end up with a skeleton and no flesh.

Todd - had yours! [cheers.gif]

Jeremy - loved the Grosset Polish Hill last month. That’s exactly how wonderful they can be! 0.9 g/L RS.

DanielP - is that really how a consumer needs to go about it in the year of the lord 2020? Having to call each producer individually to find out their sugar levels because whatever they put on their label can’t be trusted?

I just registered www.knochentrocken.com [thumbs-up.gif] [dance-clap.gif]

Drink less European Riesling, and more Australian. Happy days!

“knochentrocken” is good one by the way, should create a good page out of it :joy:

Normal human perception levels for sugar start at around 2 g/l. Perhaps you are a sugar super taster or something.

Anyway, I actually think you don’t like fruit, but that’s just my perception based on your posts.

No, I have this same problem, too, whenever I dip into German Reisling, though I am sensitive to sugar. The sweetness always gets me and undermines the other admirable qualities I often do find in the wines.

+1

At least fruit typical of Riesling.

I think it’s pretty clear at this point Riesling is not for you. Please just accept it and move on to something else.

[wink.gif]

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What’s the ABV on this wine?

Count me in the group that strongly dislikes dry Riesling.

Not sure this is helpful, but sec is up to 4gl rs. My guess is that a lot of wines scrape up against that. I also think that fruitiness “shows” sweeter in riesling and the ripeness level in contemporary Alsatian wines doesn’t help. Personally, I always approach Alsatian rieslings as if they will be at least broad if not a bit sec-tendre.

“From 2016, dry Alsace wines must be labeled “sec” or “dry” if they have maximum four grams of residual sugar per liter.”

https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2015/05/is-this-wine-dry-alsace-label-laws-make-it-clear

If you are willing to give Alsace one more try, seek out Domaine Pfister Riesling, the Tradition is quite good and I think the Engelberg is special. They taste dry to me.

I think you should try to get your hands on a trocken wine from Falkenstein or in a more relaxed style, Weiser-Künstler. Trocken really feels trocken with these wines.

Thank you Nathan, I will try to get my hands on some of those. I have not seen the word Sec on any of the Alsatians bought here, but maybe they don’t need to use that classification for exports?

Might just have to! Have you got other personal Aussie recommends beside the video link you shared?

This was 13%.

Maybe, but I don’t think so, because it became a point the other night when I had a Grüner Veltliner from a very respected US producer (I won’t say who, because they make great wines and like them a lot). Both me and my wife thought it was the worst of two varieties - it lacked the zesty, green, malic apple fruit aromas of a Riesling, but had picked up that medicinal, slightly bitter thing from Chardonnay at the end. So I missed that fruit from Riesling. That said, to your point, that sweeter Rieslings do have much fruitier and exciting noses than the drier ones, I’ll certainly give them that.

I wouldn’t bother with W-K or Falkenstein.

IIRC, that scale you point to on the back of the K-B is an “official” one where a producer indicates dryness.

Because you don’t think the trocken is dry enough?

What is wrong with a wet bone?