The Idaho Wine Commission sent us a mixed case of the group’s wines to get the word out that there’s some tasty wine in Idaho. And given what we’ve been tasting, there are. Including this one.
Michael was really looking forward to this one. He loves dessert wines and the Koenig Vineyards Botrytis Single Berry Late Harvest Riesling was everything he likes.
Botrytis is actually a fungus and usually means your grapes (or other fruit) have gone rotten. But the form known as noble rot actually adds to sweet wines, such as Sauternes and this late harvest riesling.
Another thing that makes this wine interesting is that riesling is often made as a sweet wine, but not necessarily a dessert wine. German rieslings are usually off-dry and great with spicy foods. But they aren’t as thick and heavy as a dessert wine, which this one most definitely is.
Michael got strawberry and melon on the nose, and thought it was nicely balanced, without any “heat” from too much alcohol. It also had a rich mouthfeel and wasn’t cloying.