Long Shadow Vintners Poet's Leap Riesling - 2005

The Poet's Leap label comes from the prestigious world class collection of Long Shadows Vintners and crafted from Washington grapes by Armin Diel, proprietor of the renowned Schlossgut Diel in Germany. We served the chilled bottle of this off-dry wine before dinner last weekend. What a treat!

With both of the red and white vintages, the 2005 growing season will be remembered as one of Washington's finest and Poet's Leap Riesling rings true of this - fresh and perfectly balanced. It is a blend from two of the older vineyards in the area - Dionysus Vineyard north of the Tri-Cities, planted in 1972 and Weinbau Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope, planted in 1982.

We couldn't have served a better wine to pair with our appetizers of artichoke cheese torte, spicy bandarillos, assorted Greek olives and a plate of simple radishes and sliced cucumbers sprinkled with Kosher salt. As we know, when in doubt about what wine to pair with cheese, Riesling always works and the hint of artichoke in the cheese torta was complimented and the fruit flavors of the wine cooled the spiciness from the colorful banderillo kebabs. The flavors of Poet's Leap off-dry wine are honey-dew and apricot with a light-bite of citrus. The finish was clean and bright without being cloyingly sweet.

In a few years, we will soon be seeing more and more Rieslings (dry and off-dry) from Washington state on the store shelves because of our almost-perfect growing conditions. In fact, Bonny Doon from California, known for their eclectic and colorful labels such as Cardinal Zin, just broke ground this week in Richland for their new winery - - Pacific Rim will produce dry Rieslings from Eastern WA grapes. When in doubt, Rieslings are the perfect wine to pair with cheese and spicy Thai food. For those of you "I only drink reds snooty-von-snoots" (yes, you know who you are), you will be missing out and be left in the dust if you don't add this varietal to your limited and narrow-minded wine repertoire.