My Love for Riesling

I really don't know much about wine. I've only recently started getting into them. I am starting to enjoy them a bit more than I used to. But I doubt I would ever be a true wine enthusiast. I just like the occasional glass of wine with my food.

But lately I have been infatuated with a specific white wine: Reisling.

(Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling)

The first time I have ever had a bottle of Riesling was earlier this year on a train ride from Seattle back down to Los Angeles after a week's cruise up in Alaska. I was on Amtrak's Costal Starlight for 36 hours. They had a wine tasting at around 4pm each day. The first day they served a Washington Riesling as a part of the wine tasting and I fell in love with that bottle.

I have been looking for Rieslings at my local supermarkets to see what they carried. It turns out the selection is very small. There are a few bottles of German and American Rieslings and that's it. A friend of mine got me a bottle of Riesling last week at my quick get-together from Trader Joes. It was a much drier bottle than the Rieslings I've had before. My friend is much more experienced with wine and prefer drier wines. I'm starting to understand why. I did enjoy that bottle very much. I probably had the most wine I've actually drank at one sitting that night.

Well two nights ago as I was doing a little grocery shopping with a friend at Ralphs for a late night snack, I saw a whole shelf of Rieslings prominently on display. I have never seen this many bottles of Rieslings at a supermarket before. Only Bevmo actually had a shelf of various Rieslings. I opened up my iPhone to search for Chateau Ste Michelle and found out that they are the largest producers of Riesling wines in the country. It was on sale so I bought a bottle to try.

We got back to my friend's place. I took out his Cuisinart 5-in-1 Griddler and grilled some extra firm tofu and bell pepper. It was a quick marinate so the flavors weren't completely penetrated. It didn't really matter though cause we just wanted a quick late night snack. I just added some soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce and olive oil to the tofu and bell pepper for a few minutes. Then we put it on the griddler and it was done in under ten minutes. It was tasty enough and went perfect with the Riesling. I wish I actually took a picture of that dish though.

I have to say Riesling is my favorite type of white wine for now. I really don't like Chardonnay and that's probably why I never got into wine. Perhaps some day I will try a different white and end up liking that one more. But no matter what, Riesling will always be the wine that got me into wine in the first place.