Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Mastronardi 2005 Brianje Riesling

Found May 2009

Considering that many of the 2005 Rieslings I have tried have been loaded with an over abundance of petrol (more than they should for a 4-5 year old wine) I approached this wine with a little trepidation as to how it had stood up. Before going on allow me to tell you how this bottle ends up lost, and found. My fiancee is a buyer of wine (not much, but enough) and less of a consumer - she refuses to open a bottle when she is by herself; which usually means I have wine to drink when I am visiting her place in Michigan. Until recently though, most of her wine has been stored in boxes, when she moved into her new place I made sure she had some wine racks and I organized her cellar (about 40 bottles). Much to my surprise I found lots of Ontario whites and a few oddball reds (a 2001 Chianti, a 2003 Cab and an 2004 Zinfandel) amongst them. I also got her a glass rack that holds four bottles for her kitchen - to remind her that 1) It's okay to drink alone; 2) You have wine at your disposal; and 3) I'm going to make it easy on you to fulfill 1 and 2 ... alas she still doesn't drink alone - so it must be me who's the alcoholic (wink). Anyway, I pulled this Riesling off the rack (and chilled it in the fridge) on a day where the Michigan sun was high in the sky and the temp had topped at a quite balmy (and breezy) 17 degrees (Celsius). The aromas on this wine were muted melon, mac apple, some orange rind and just a hint of petrol kicking around in the background. The tastes were perfect for the breezy-balmy day we found ourselves part of, more pronounce melon and apple, subtle notes of rindy-petrol and a sweet tangerine finish. Lovely, and so was the hour we found ourselves sipping it over. Lost & Found Rating: Treasure