United States of Wine

Wagner Vineyards – Estate Bottled – Finger Lakes – Riesling – Semi Dry – 2021

Purchased: Total Wine

Price: $19.99 ($16.99 after coupon)

I had heard the vineyards in Upstate New York were a great place to visit, and maybe I’ll get the opportunity to try a wine at a winery one day. But for now, I settled for a bottle from one of the popular vineyards on the Finger Lakes: Wagner.

To start off, I’m not a fan of Rieslings, or at least the commercial American kind that’s far too sweet for anyone who actually enjoys wine. I’ve had German Rieslings that lack that overwhelming sweetness, and while I liked those better, they still aren’t my first pick. So why did I pick a Riesling for this? Because it was a type of wine I had not yet tasted for this blog.

The first sip of this clear, yellowish white wine was tasty. It wasn’t so sweet that it was off-putting, which is a ‘plus’ for me. But the scent was definitely something. Me and my tasting partner couldn’t agree if the scent in our glasses was rubber or metallic. We did agree that it smells like a metal coin.

The bottle claimed this bottle was “semi dry,” sitting exactly between “dry and “sweet.” And it tasted like exactly that: not too sweet, nor dry. A delicate balance.

As the wine warmed every so slightly, that scent started becoming overbearing, and affected my sense of smell to the point that the taste was changing. We threw around ideas of what the powerful smell that violated our noses was every time we lifted the glass to take a sip. Was it a tire shop? A car dealership? We arrived at modern Navy battleship. Why modern? Because the metal smell lacked the diesel addition that now lives in retired battleships. No, this smell was like being surrounded by thick metal walls.

The battleship smell stayed through my entire first glass of this Finger Lakes Riesling. It was too hard to get past it as I lifted the glass to my face, and the taste was becoming complicated, but not in a good way. I felt like I couldn’t identify any of the wine’s notes. So I started to hold my breath.

It was an unusual sensation, taking a sip of wine while not inhaling the wine’s natural smell. But doing so allowed me forgo the battleship visit, and I waited to taste the wine until the glass was away from my face. It help me taste the wine and know the scent wasn’t affecting the taste.

What I did find was the overwhelming taste of peaches come through. And it was very pleasant. I enjoyed the rest of my glass, holding my breath before taking a sip as if I was bobbling for apples.

But the second glass was so different that we wondered if we were drinking of the same bottle.

We were mildly shocked to notice the battleship smell had disappeared by the second glass, and the wine still showed hints of the fruit we had smelled earlier. But it got immensely sweeter, even though it was still chilled. Suddenly each sip reminded me of the typical Cupcake riesling that is nearly unbearable.

At the end I was disappointed that with this bottle of wine, the choice was between a semi dry battleship or a fruity sweet drink. It’s only good moments were when I didn’t breathe as I sipped, and how could anyone really enjoy that for very long?

Score: 5.0/10