• Vigneau-Cheavreau, Vouvray, Clos de Rougemont, 2005. A nice one from the Loire. This one is a great summer sipper. Chenin Blanc and nice terroir yield a slightly sweet but not sugary flavor, with very noticable apple flavor, fading to a bit of a sharper apple-cider type finish.
• Muller-Catoir, Musbacher Eselshaut, Riesling Kabinett, 2006 German wine classifications are so complex that most people avoid them, but they do offer some of the best Sweet/Dry Rieslings out there, and a bit of understanging is worthwhile. This one is from premium producer Muller Catoir, the region is Musbacher Eselhaut, the grape is Riesling and the rating "level" is Kabinett. Germans rate their wines based on the residual sugar levels, with the lowest of the rated (QmP) wines being Kabinett, with 17-21 percent sugar by weight.
  

  I tend to like the Kabinett grade as well as the next level up -- Spatlese -- for drinking with food. Beyond that, most wines are far too sweet to be used as anything other than dessert wines, though I have occasionally had a superbly made Auslese that went well with some foods.
  

  The Germans look for winemakers who can sucessfully balance high-sugar grapes with the right degree of acid and alcohol to produce a balanced wine. It's no small feat and one of the reasons that the higher rankings with the higher sugar levels are very expensive and made by few producers. In some years, it's all but impossible to make good ones.
  

  This one is a good example of what a Kabinett should be. Nice and fruity, with lots of apple and pear, fading to a slightly citric finish. Went nicely as a balance to spicy Chinese take-out. Compared to the Eroica that I discussed last week, this is clearly a more refined wine, admittedly at a higher price. The balance is just perfect and I never got the feeling that it was too sweet, or too fruity, or too acidic, or too... anything. It was just balance all the way through, and great on a hot evening.

Next week's selection will probably include a birthday champagne, drunk from the bottle on top of a mountain somewhere, and possibly not much else.

-btc