TCK
Barrel Filler
Posts:1279
 | | 12/12/2002 7:20 PM |
| I'm glad that German Riesling is popping up on this forum, it deserves it's place as a great wine. I drink a lot of them, and consider it one of my stronger suits.
In reading pro reviews of Riesling I often see the tasting term "Slate". This one miffs me. Citrus, grapefruit, lemon, tart peaches, green apples, these are the flavors that I always find in my notes but I have no idea what slate tastes like, who does  it's a freak'n rock for god sakes  . Yeah there is a mineral flavor in good Riesling, I guess it's Mineral, it's not fruit - but slate?? My patio is made out of slate, should I go bite a slab - might hurt but I'll try. | | | |
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Joseph Bembry
Wine Lover
Posts:4858
| | 12/12/2002 9:09 PM |
| Don't bite it, but you may want to take a sniff.
Often, flavor descriptors for wine are used that are not anything that anyone has tasted. What is being desribed is that smell and how it may equate to what is being percieved in the mouth. I don't think any of us have eaten leather or stones or earth, etc. It is what those smells represent that is being desrcibed.
jb | | | |
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TCK
Barrel Filler
Posts:1279
| | 12/12/2002 9:19 PM |
| I've tasted leather, not recomended.
I've ate dirt, not recomended.
I will sniff my slate tonight but I don't think it will smell like anythink - maybe the dirt it's in I'll see. Maybe I'll break a lifesaver size piece off and give it a try | | | |
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Bradley Molzen
Bayonne, NJ
Wine Lover
Posts:4974
| | 12/12/2002 9:55 PM |
| Maybe they mean chalky mineral?
Anyhow... I've tasted rocks, dirt, earth, terrior, pencil lead, leather... etc.etc.etc. Not always on purpose however... lol.
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If you drink wine, you get smarter.... | |
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jaimetown
DC area
Wine Bottler
Posts:3430
| | 12/12/2002 10:08 PM |
| One of the most educational lessons I've learned in terroir came from drinking Priorat (Spain) wines. Huge element of mineral (Schist, I'm told) on the nose. I took a whiff of a wet stone from a Priorat vineyard and then a whiff of the wine from the vineyard and you can totally identify the soil element.
I'm no geologist, but mineral elements in wine I find fascinating. | | | |
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TCK
Barrel Filler
Posts:1279
| | 12/12/2002 10:35 PM |
| I agree Jaimietown, I often pick up notes that I can only say are mineral. I started this topic as a half Joke and half seriouse, because mineral is one thing - to break it then out into slate is another. How do they know it's not limestone, or granite
(again joking, it just makes me laugh) | | | |
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GATC
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2420
| | 12/13/2002 2:52 AM |
| This reminds me of a WS Forum thread where lead and rubber and other things that we normally do not eat were used.
It's one of those things that you recognize and remember, but it is hard to accurately describe it. For me, mineral doesn't quite do it. Chalk doesn't do it, but there is a component that does remind me of chalk. It is a similar sensation to when I get a steely taste in my mouth, when there is blood).
I really enjoy blind tastings and hearing how people describe the wine. This way I can learn how others describe what I am tasting or smelling. | | | |
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Seek
Upstate NY
Wine Thief
Posts:2772
| | 12/13/2002 3:36 AM |
| | Blood taste usually will be in reference to Iron, this is something I have tasted in many wines. I remember that post GATC, some people were getting hot under the collar about people tasting rubber, asphalt, tar and the like in wine. Asphalt I have experienced many times in wines, particularly in some of the huge extracted Aussie Shiraz. Have I tasted asphalt, yes (it was not on purpose), but I agree with jb that the tastes are related to the actual odor of the subject. | | | |
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Bradley Molzen
Bayonne, NJ
Wine Lover
Posts:4974
| | 12/13/2002 3:51 AM |
| Oooh... I've had a nice meety blood shiraz before... Loved it. :-) Iron you say? That's interesting... didn't know what iron tasted like
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If you drink wine, you get smarter.... | |
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Pool Boy
Laurl, MD (DC suburb)
Master of Wine
Posts:13672
| | 12/13/2002 4:35 AM |
| If you ever put a rock in your mouth as a kid (yes, I was that stupid), then you have an idea of what slate might taste like. But thesmells, too. It's what the wine evokes in your brain, too.  | |
www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com | |
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Jeremy Matthew
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2067
| | 12/13/2002 5:09 AM |
| | I think the trick is to go outside when the sun is really hot and smell your patio then. There is a definate although subtle slate smell. Like when water hits it and evaporuates your also get that wet stone/slate smell. Althout I think certain stones smell diferrantly. | | | |
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Budman
Master of Wine
Posts:11841
| | 12/13/2002 10:30 AM |
| Jeremy, You're only saying that because it's summer where you live.
Until yesterday, my patio was covered with snow.  | | | |
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skwid
Wine Connoisseur
Posts:5452
| | 12/13/2002 3:41 PM |
| | What's snow? | | | |
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mountainman
Mammoth Mountain
Wine Bottler
Posts:3121
| | 12/14/2002 1:26 AM |
| | Snow is what's coming down in my yard right now. | | | |
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Jeremy Matthew
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2067
| | 12/14/2002 1:55 AM |
| | I don't even get snow in the winter, except in the Mountains further south. Ah yes the terrible life of living in NZ, great wine, cheap wine, not too colder winters, not too hotter summers, great food....and 1000 kilometers to anywhere else(and thats Australia)...oh well. | | | |
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GATC
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2420
| | 12/14/2002 3:07 AM |
| | Last time I saw snow was in Kalamazoo, MI. I didn't realize that snow came in two colors - black and white. I don't now how Mother Nature knows when to drop black snow next to the roads and white snow in all the other places. | | | |
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Pool Boy
Laurl, MD (DC suburb)
Master of Wine
Posts:13672
| | 12/15/2002 5:45 AM |
| I love snow. If it were a few degrees colder, all the rain we just had that melted all the snow we just had would instead probably have been 3 feet of powder.
Dang | |
www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com | |
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