by Ethan Johnson
September 7, 2006

I'm in the thick of reading a second-hand copy of Great Wine Made Simple by Andrea Immer-Robinson, which is really getting me fired up for "late summer" here in Texas, as opposed to "autumn." We haven't been drinking much wine lately, wine/cheese bash notwithstanding, and my reputation as "Mister Food" was upheld on a recent trip to Wisconsin. I flew up with 4 bottles of wine to give away, and returned with 6. Just what my burgeoning wine collection needed! Tonight the weather, astrology, and Gods aligned favorably to allow us to sample one of our new Wisconsin wines:

Producer (Vineyard): Wollersheim Winery
Varietal (Grape type): Seyval Blanc
Vintage (Year): 2005
Country: USA (Wisconsin)
Color: White
Cost: Inexpensive ($10 USD)

(Trivia: I first learned of this wine, and winery, on Simply Wine with Andrea Immer on the Fine Living network sometime last year.)

Swirl and Sniff: The color was a whiter shade of pale. The scent off the glass ranged from grassy to "floral", meaning "like flowers", not "like a French whorehouse".

Taste: It flutters back and forth between "grassy" and pears, with the floral thing weaving through it. A nice lilty late summer wine that strikes a nice balance without being too "sissy" or "brassy".

Pairing: I paired this with Mar's yellow potatoes, boiled and buttered with super-secret spice blends and seasonings. The wine held up well against the blend. Less so with grilled pork, which left a gritty, bitter aftertaste.

Rating: When it comes to this wine, I would (and you may):

• Buy a case of for regular enjoyment
• Buy a bottle or two for occasional enjoyment
• Ask for when dining out or at a party
• Settle for if your preferred wine is not available
• Politely decline and never drink again, ever

This is a nice "semi-dry" wine to have on hand. It is only 10% alcohol by volume, with means refreshing taste without a big headache. If you are caught between the demands of "sissy wine" drinkers and "grown up, dry and sophisticated" wine drinkers, pull this out of the wine fridge and celebrate a toast to "compromise." Sadly, Wollersheim won't ship everywhere nationwide, including TX, which I think is a grave mistake. I have wine heads down here that will order by the case without batting an eyelash. In short, if you can get some, try some.

Oh, one of the things I learned in the last 24 hours that escaped me otherwise was the concept of "legs", such as when a wine nerd says a wine has "good legs". I thought this had something to do with the "finish" or aftertaste. Instead, when you swirl the wine around in your glass, then stop, the residual wine will slide back down into the glass and rejoin the rest of the wine. How quickly or slowly this happens is called the "legs". As might be surmised, this wine has "short" or "thin" legs, in that it recedes into the glass very quickly. What this means to you is that this wine is light-bodied. But you might surmise that anyway since I didn't call it "thick", "big", or "creamy."

If you do give this a try, please let me know how your experience compared with mine. Thanks! <EM>

(The Totally Unpretentious Wine Reviews Index may be found here.)