Wine Reviews

Wine Review: 2019 Dr. Loosen Riesling

I’m going to be brutally honest with you –

This will be the third time I’ve opened a bottle of this wine with the intention of writing a review. The problem I keep running into is that I enjoy it so much that before I know it the bottle is gone and I haven’t even started writing! Oops!

But not tonight. Tonight I’m going to take my time, because I really, really want to share this wine with you.

My hope in writing these reviews is that I can help you find your next favourite wine. But I can’t do that if I keep all the good ones to myself, now can I?!

What I really like about this wine is that it’s got a bit of sweetness to it, so it really appeals to newer wine drinkers who are still dipping their toe in with the sweeter stuff and haven’t quite warmed up to fully dry wines.

It’s like a gateway wine 😉

In fact, I cracked open the last bottle I bought with a friend who exclusively likes sweet wines. We started the night with a Moscato and she was in heaven, but I convinced her to try this Riesling.

She looked *really* sceptical when she gave it an initial sniff test. “It smells… strong,” were her exact words.

But after that first sip, she was pleasantly surprised and actually really enjoyed it!

That’s what I want for all of you new and casual wine lovers – to help you broaden your horizons and find new treats for your senses.

Let’s go!  

THE LOOK

This wine is pale lemon in the glass. The outer edge of the wine looks as clear as water, but it clings to the edge of the glass, giving a bit of a preview of the sweetness to come.

Wines with higher sugar content are more viscous, to the extreme where sweet wines and ice wines have an almost syrup-like consistency.

This wine doesn’t go that far, but it does take it’s time running back down.  

THE AROMAS

The nose on this wine is of medium intensity. I have to bring it to about chin height before I can start to catch the aromas floating out of the glass.

Peaches, pears and apricots spring to mind immediately. They smell ripe and sweet, almost candied.

A second whiff sends me floral notes of roses and cherry blossoms.

Digging a little deeper beneath those initial layers, I’m also finding the characteristic petrol notes. I really like that it’s more subtle in this wine than some other Rieslings. I have found in the past that sometimes it can be so pungent that it turns me off of the whole wine, but this is the perfect level.

At this point, I referred back to the notes I’ve made on Riesling in the past, and checked to see if I could pick anything else out on the list.

Banana, beeswax and honey, with the tiniest hint of lemon, were also all swirling around in that glass. Note: I’m currently drinking this at room temperature, but I get the sense that once I’ve chilled it a little longer, those lemon notes would pop a little bit more.

I am loving how complex this wine is. It’s really running the gamut of aromas for a Riesling and I find that so fun and intriguing.

THE PALATE

Now for a first sip.

The acidity hits me first, followed by the sweetness. It feels reminiscent of a cool glass of lemonade on a hot day (even though it’s -20 degrees Celsius as I’m writing this…)

I can definitely feel the mouth-watering effects of the acidity as soon as I start to swirl the wine around my mouth. It’s really pumping up that hint of lemon I smelled earlier so that it’s much stronger on the palate than it was on the nose.

The sweetness becomes apparent as I swallow, because I can feel it hesitate just a little longer than usual on my tongue. This amps up those honey notes, as well as a bit of candied apricot.

It provides a good counterpoint to the acidity, so that the wine ends up feeling very well-balanced on the palate.

No tannins here to worry assessing about because it’s a white, and amazingly, it’s only 8.5% alcohol! Very easy sipping. (No wonder I “accidentally” ran through so many bottles…)

Overall, I would classify the body as being somewhere between light and medium. The residual sugar adds a little bit of weight when it comes to mouthfeel, but the crisp acidity keeps it feeling fresh.

CONCLUSIONS

Now, it’s obvious that I’m a personal fan of this wine (I wouldn’t bother writing a review if I wasn’t!), but let’s talk about an objective assessment of quality as well.

It’s a well-balanced wine. No particular aspect feels too heavy-handed or out of sync with the rest of it’s characteristics.

The finish is long as well. Those delicious fruit flavours stayed with me for over 30 seconds. I believe this is in part due to the sweetness. It feels like the flavours are “sticking” in my mouth, like after sucking on a hard candy.

Although this wine was medium in intensity on the nose, it’s really popped on the palate.

And finally, in terms of complexity and characteristics, it really had an impressive variety of notes that could be picked out and examined, and was true to what you would expect to find in a Riesling.

That’s a 5 out of 5 for me! I would rank this as an outstanding wine.

Want to learn more about Riesling? Check out my Wine Baby’s Guide to Riesling, here.

How would you rank this wine? Did you pick out the same characteristics as me, or do you have something else to add? Let me know in the comments!