*****The 2022 Bike Touring Wine Review

May 18, 2022

Wisconsin Edition

A Quick Summary of My Wine Review History

I know very little about wine and rarely drink it. However, I've enjoyed reading wine reviews in foodie magazines for many years. I love the flowery language.

It was on my MN to MA tour that I got the idea to do a satirical review of a wine from the Lake Erie region. In my own mind, it was a HUGE success.
The next year, I reviewed another local wine from Mississippi. (Mississippi? That's right--Mississippi.) After that one, I had become such a bike touring wine celebrity that, in successive years, I reviewed wines from Ontario, Minnesota, North Dakota, Arizona, Iowa, Washington and Idaho.
It was on my Idaho tour that I made a huge mistake. I did my first video wine review, and it didn't turn out so well. My fans were so disgusted with my performance that I thought it might be best to allow the wine reviews to sink into oblivion.

Well, I'm Back By Popular Demand

Of course, "popular demand" can be a very subjective term. Really, it can mean almost ANY number of demands. The important thing here is what "popular demand" means to ME. With that in mind, I'm going to offer a multiple choice quiz:

HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU THINK REQUESTED ANOTHER BIKE TOURING WINE REVIEW THIS YEAR?

(The answer will be revealed at the bottom of the page.)

The Review:

I don't know if this is true of wines from Europe or other continents, but it seems like the label of every American wine I've ever seen claims it has won some kind of award from some kind of wine tasting competition. The Wisconsin wine I selected for this review is no exception.

Wollersheim Winery's Dry Reisling was named "Best White Wine of 2018" at the San Bernardino Wine Competition. I don't know how prestigious the S.B.W.C. is in the wine world, but it really doesn't matter. The bottle I purchased is a 2019 vintage--a year too late.

Nice bottle. Rieslings always seem to have a longer tapered neck than other wines. I do not know why.

One exciting thing about this wine review is that it is the first time I haven't done the tasting at a campsite. This time I'm in a Waukesha motel room where it's warm and dry. You could say my room is as dry as a Wollersheim Riesling.

The bottle was very easy to open. The screw cap was a nice touch.

And it was nice to be able to pour such a fine wine into a paper wine glass, courtesy of Choice Hotels.

No doubt, the wine was liquidy. And tasty. And juicy. And quaffable. The tannins, bouquet, mouth feel, and swirliness were right in line with what you'd expect from a San Bernardino award winner from Wisconsin.

The label said it had "notes of anise, apple and lime." Okey dokey. MY sophisticated palate sensed hints of asparagus, starfruit, and mayonaisse.

Ah heck, it was so good I didn't really need the fancy wine cup. It's chuggable.

The Answer to the Quiz

The correct answer is:

#1. 2

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	9
Comment on this entry	Comment	6

Nancy GrahamThere is NO end to your areas of expertise. Thank you for such an awe inspiring review of the Wollersheim. Now I feel validated for using a wind glass similar to yours ;’-).
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1 year ago

Gregory GarceauTo Nancy GrahamExpertise? Oh boy, I've never heard that word associated with ME before. Thank you.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonOnly two requests? I’ll have to remember this for your next tour, and get my vote in early. You should assemble them all into a wine review pamphlet and publish it, sort of like a Zagat’s catalog of little known labels suitable for chugging at the campsite. It’s so much harder now than when I was young and you only had to flip a coin to choose between Gallo and Red Ripple.
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1 year ago

Gregory GarceauTo Scott AndersonIn the part of the country I lived in, we also had such stalwarts as Mogen David 20/20 and Boone's Farm.
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1 year ago

Keith KleinHi,
Well done. Impressive wine glass and drinking technique.
How to win a wine competition:
1. Make some wine.
2. Send it to a wine tasting competition. If your wine wins, great. If not repeat step two at smaller and smaller competitions until you win.
3. Make a label touting your win.
As a side note, in San Berdoo anything reasonably liquid tastes good.
Cheers,
Keith
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1 year ago

Gregory GarceauTo Keith KleinAh, so that's how it works. Thank you Keith, as always, for your interesting wine information--especially the tidbit about the shape of Reisling bottles.
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1 year ago