Riesling is a wine that I am still trying to get my hands around and understand.  I love the acidity in the wine and love the lime and citrus and the occasional petrol aroma’s that can evolve in a Riesling. 

Then there are times that I have had a Riesling and wondered why this is so sweet, knowing it’s not a desert wine.  Then there are times that I have had it and felt this could be my favorite grape.

So when I saw this hanging out at Roanoke Vineyards, I though, lets give it a try. 

Roman Roth is a German born winemaker who finds himself making wine at Wölffer Estate Vineyards and at Roanoke Vineyards, and if that is not enough, he also lends his hands and advice to some of the next up and coming wine makers on Long Island.  So what does Roman Roth do in his spare time.  He makes his own wine.

This is the second vintage of the Grapes of Roth Riesling.  It is 100 Riesling taken from two north fork locations.  68% comes from Split Rock Vineyard near Greenport.  The other 32% comes from Martha Clara Vineyards.  The grapes were hand harvested and brought to Wölffer Estate Vineyards for desteming and pressed.

On the nose I was picking up some apricot, white peach, apple and lime.  There was a salinity to the nose as well, kind of like ocean air.

The taste was very crisp and clean.  It had bright acidity.  There was flavors of apple skin, pear and citrus.  There was a little wet rock quality that was nice as well. 

I did enjoy this Riesling.  This is another notch in the Riesling belt that hopefully one day I will have a better understanding of it.

You can buy this 2008 The Grapes of Roth Riesling ($22) from Roanoke Vineyards tasting room as well as Roman Roth’s own website where he goes into great detail about this wine and his own story.