In years past we had been tasked with bringing a bottle of
the appropriate style and price range, but that led to a
surplus of wine and some pounding heads, so the last couple
times people have been encouraged to double or triple up
so we can have less alcoholic haze and a more interesting
experience, as we are now able to sample things that might
have been out of our price range before. This plan seems
to have worked well.

We started with a couple fizzies before going on to the
first of the Rieslings.

J. Lassalle Champagne Premier Cru Preference Brut
Good bubbles, yeast and lemon on the nose. This was
pretty standard good midrange Champers, with toast,
citrus, and particularly apple. I don't generally
drink this sort of stuff except on or near airplanes,
but this was good enough to partake of any time.

Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne 06
Hard to turn this down either, as Comtes is a great wine
even not counting the bubbles. A complexity that goes well
beyond most sparklers - yeasty but not really, citrusy but
which citrus?, pineapple, no, but not real apple either, maybe
Asian pear. Also some spice. Really plays around with your
head. This was a wine to make a pleasure out of the tasting
process. Also a small bit of oxidation that didn't hurt at all,
enhancing the toast aspect. Small subtle bubbles, long subtle
finish.

Richmond Plains blanc de noir
Honeysuckle, slightly off dry, pleasant. I thought
it slightly out of its depth here, but then perhaps
that's because it's not my style; to me there are so
many more interesting things to do with Pinot Noir grapes.
And truth be told, I've never been that much a fan of New
Zealand Pinots, either. Oh, well.

Martinborough rose from I'm not sure whom, perhaps Martinborough
Moderate concentration, orange blossom and lemon peel,
pleasantly quaffable but the pour was sadly not enough
to quaff.

Two typical clean modern dry Rieslings served next to each other:
Kuentz-Bas Geisberg Alsace Grand Cru 15
Especially lively acid on the palate with lots of lemon and
grapefruit - quite pleasant;

Schloss Gobelsburg Tradition 12
Seemed to me to be more in a modern style despite its name:
maybe the apple and stone fruit harked back to the olden days,
but I'd have looked for a bit more richness from the tradition
part. Oh, it was extremely well made and had no kind of fault
or flaw, but I didn't find it embodied the German tradition
(this is said to be one of the few Austrian wines that can go up
against the great Germans). I'd gone in on this bottle, a mag.

Dÿnnhoff Roxheimer Hÿllenpfad Riesling trocken 15
Very dry, minerally, acid. Lots of apple. I thought it a
classy wine, but it's not my style either.

Christmann Konigsbacher Idig Riesling GG 14 - don't remember this
but people say it was there.
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