The Desert Wine Guy - 2012 Starling Castle Riesling

  With Summer ending and the last of the pool days slowly (in Vegas) coming to an end I felt like grabbing a nice Riesling for our review today. Come on up to the Loft, have a seat and relax. Let me pour you a glass of the 2012 Starling Castle Riesling. This is one of those wines from the beginning that I was slightly put off on. Why was I slightly put off? This wine just so happens to have a screw cap, that's why. Those of you who have read some of my articles already know how I feel about screw caps. I think they should be reserved for Mad Dog 20/20 or Manischewitz Kosher Wine. Yes I can be a wine snob at times and I guess when it comes to screw caps I am. What first caught my eye when looking for a Riesling was actually the bottle of the Starling. The bottle appears to have almost a type of paint on it instead of the common paper label. I actually thought the bottle was interesting so I decided this is as good as any. At about $10 a bottle I was interested enough to forget about my favorite Riesling (Chateau Ste. Michelle) and the fact this wine had a Screw cap. I decide I was going to be a little crazy today and here we are so let's head on into this review.

                                                                

   
   While attempting to do some research on this wine I came to a dead end. I could not find anything about the Winery, Vineyard or the Wine Maker. What I found was that the wine is fairly popular and is from Germany and the Mosel region which is one of Germany's 13 official wine regions. Mosel is also Germany's third largest in term of production and it's most popular grape is the Riesling.
   Like is typical of a Riesling this wine has that sweet, flowery Bouquet of fruit that comes to your nose right away. The Bouquet of Pear was most pronounced and this was followed by Apple. I know you are probably saying "that's it? Yep that is it. The wine did have a bright, bubbly, Fruit Orchard aroma to it and I had hopes that the rest of the wine was just as enticing. To the mouth with this wine we go.
    The first taste of the wine was almost the same as the Bouquet, Pear which was followed by Apple but now joining those flavors was a fresh Semi-sweet Honeydew flavor. The wine finished with a very slight lemony twist. This Lemony ending was not bitter at all and I sort of enjoyed it. It was almost like an after thought. Just when you thought you tasted a very simple wine the lemon came out of nowhere. The wine seems to feel limited in its ability to give the drinker any excitement however and was kind of a lot of Pear mixed with a little of this and a little of that.
   Putting this all together now I have to say that the wine was not really what I would call a bad wine but it was a little too sweet for my liking. The wine is very fruit forward as you have probably already guessed and is a kind of "here I am " wine. It hides nothing, does not open up or change in flavor and is consistant throughout. Is the wine worth the $10 you ask? Considering I can get the Chateau Ste Michelle for 7-8 dollars I think will have to pass on this. The wine was not put together as well as the Chateau Michelle and was a little more expensive at the same time.The wine is also NOT made in America as is the Chateau Ste Michelle (Washington State) and if given the choice I will support a wine from this country. The flavors were not as diverse either. I guess if I couldn't find the Chateau Ste Michelle I might go for it again but then again I am The Desert WIne Guy and as such I do wine reviews and am always on the lookout for an interesting wine so maybe not. In answer to your question I am going to stick to my Chateau Ste Michelle thank you. On The Desert Wine Guys point scale I give it 85 points.

                                                                                                                 The Desert Wine Guy

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