Riesling Reflections: Literary Inspirations & Wine Explorations

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Jennifer Simonson

Jennifer is a writer, photographer and wine enthusiast who publishes a blog called Bookworm, in which she pairs wine with books. It combines two of her favorite pastimes and is intended to make both reading and sipping wine more enjoyable. She recently received her WSET Level 3 in Wines certification through France 44 Wine & Spirits Education. She lives in Linden Hills and enjoys running around the city lakes, gardening, cooking and making art.

Pairing books and wine is not unlike pairing food and wine, in that I look for areas of congruence and/or contrast, always in search of balance. The pairing can be inspired by many things – a character’s personality, the writing style, the author, where the novel takes place, or my final impression after reading a book. Most books have multiple pairing options, and to create your own, simply consider what elements speak most to you.

Below is a summary of a recent pairing that incorporates one of my favorite grape varieties, Riesling. While it’s made in a range of styles from dry to sweet, with its naturally high acidity, Riesling is always refreshing. (Perfect for spring and summer!) If this pairing inspires you to explore more Riesling, consider the additional recommendations at the end of this post.

And visit my Bookworm blog for the complete book review, wine tasting note, and a lengthier explanation about why the pairing is successful.

The Book: North Woods by Daniel Mason

North Woods by Daniel MasonBroadly, this novel is about a home in New England and all of its inhabitants from colonial times to the present day. It’s filled with evocative language, imaginative characters and delightful surprises – and it’s one of the best books I’ve read in years. While the story is dark at times, it’s also humorous and hopeful.

Among the memorable characters are an orchardist, spinster sisters, a painter, a spirit medium, a mother devoted to her schizophrenic son, and an amateur historian. Their emotional lives are rich with longing, delight, absurdity and deceit. While the people in the home come and go, it is a testament to Mason’s skill as a writer that we remain immersed in their stories.

Nature is featured as largely as any of the characters in the book, and the wooded, rural landscape is described with extraordinary attentiveness. The natural world is a constant, albeit evolving, presence. The chapters follow the months and seasons, illuminating the interconnectedness of all living things.

The author links the home’s inhabitants – and the landscape around them – in extraordinary ways, shining a light on the mystery and magnificence of human existence. North Woods is at once a majestic exploration of the centuries and a detailed study of a specific place. Both undergo tremendous change, filling us with curiosity about the past, wonder at the present, and inevitably, hope for the future.

Ravines RieslingThis dry Riesling comes from the Finger Lakes AVA in central New York State, which is known for it’s deep glacial lakes, gorges, waterfalls and woods. In this cold climate, producers Morten and Lisa Hallgren seek to make wines that “embrace mother nature’s variability.”

Floral aromas of honeysuckle and orange blossom mingle with lemon zest, lime, fresh apricot, just-ripe pineapple, yellow apple and wet stones. This wine is medium bodied with a citrus-forward palate and refreshing acidity, and it’s absolutely delicious.

Why the Pairing Works

For me, Ravines Dry Riesling evokes the lush, forested environment that Mason describes so eloquently in North Woods. Imagine a New England landscape where “(s)lugs leave hieroglyphs on the beech bark,” and a brook “splits the hillside like a tear in the fabric of the earth.” Just as the seasons are integral to this story, so too is climate to wine producers in the Finger Lakes.

While winter here is generally too cold for Vitis vinifera, the exceptionally deep lakes create a special microclimate that allows for viticulture. (Several of these glacial lakes are deeper than the sea floor!) Large bodies of water cool down and heat up more slowly than the surrounding land, which circulates air and moderates temperatures in the nearby vineyards. The best vineyards in the region are located on the steep-sloped shores of lakes Seneca, Keuka and Cayuga.

This Riesling embodies its extraordinary growing region and pairs perfectly with North Woods, where nature takes center stage.

Other Rieslings to Try

While cold-tolerant, late-budding Riesling thrives in the Finger Lakes, most world-class Riesling comes from Germany. Autumn is long, cool, and generally dry, allowing grapes to reach peak sugar ripeness and to retain acidity. Stylistically, the wines range from dry to very sweet. Riesling is known for its ability to age in the bottle where it develops aromas and flavors of honey and toast, but maintains freshness.

The following two German Rieslings are among my favorites at France 44, and they are quite different from one another:

This dry sparkling wine is made using the traditional method, just like Champagne, but it’s produced in the Pfalz from 100% Riesling. The organic grapes are hand harvested, and only the first 50% of the pressing goes into this wine. The base wine is fermented in stainless steel and large oak barrels. Then, it undergoes the traditional second fermentation in bottle, capturing the carbon dioxide, and spends 30 months on the lees.

The lees, which are dead yeast cells, break down and impart texture, richness and notes of brioche. Ripe apple, pear and lemon zest round out the nose and palate, and the bubbles are energetic and refreshing.

I first tasted this wine in a German Wines class at France 44, and I immediately loved it. I was told it’s phenomenal with fried chicken – a pairing I can’t wait to try!

The Karthäuserhof winery in the Mosel is the eighth oldest in the world, dating back to 1335 when Carthusian monks farmed the vineyards. Today, it’s managed by the 7th generation of a family who has owned it since 1811.

While this estate produces mostly dry wines, this one is sweet. Spätlese means late harvest, so as the grapes hang on the vine they accumulate sugar. The riper grapes produce wines with greater flavor concentration and body, which is immediately evident in this wine.

On the nose and palate, expect ripe fruit like apricot, peach, apple, pear, and pineapple, as well as orange blossom, wet stones and ginger. And while the sweetness is noticeable, it’s perfectly balanced by high acidity and fruity flavors.

At 8.5% ABV, this low-alcohol wine pairs nicely with spicy foods as alcohol tends to exacerbate the burning sensation of chili heat.

Women in Wine

Winemakers Cris Yagüe Cuevas and Maria Falcón
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Nicole Collins-Kwong

Nicole is a wine enthusiast who has completed the WSET 3 certification through France 44 and continues her education with tasting groups and events around town. She adores all wines, especially the unique and unusual styles. When she's not popping corks, Nicole loves to cook, hang with her husband and two boys, and tend to her urban zoo complete with dogs, a cat and chickens!

I recently attended a talk by a prominent importer who specializes in small growers, especially generational family-owned wineries. What struck me most about his talk had nothing to do with the wines, but the casual way he described all winemakers and growers as men. This left a bad taste in my mouth, which was unfortunate, because he was pouring some really great wines!

The phenomenon isn’t entirely surprising, though, given the history of leadership roles passing down from father to son. Or in the absence of a son, son-in-law. Women were typically only allowed to step in when there was a death (check out the book Widow Clicquot about one of the most infamous examples of this).  Things are slowly beginning to shift, with daughters taking over more and more.

 There’s still a long way to go, though. So, what can we do?  

  1. Listen to stories about women in wine: Winesplaining – a podcast hosted by an LA-based sommelier and owner of a female-focused wine shop, the show peels back the layers of the women‘s journeys that are shaping the wine business.
  2. Bolster careers of women who want to BE in wine:
    • March 25 is National Women in Wine Day! Created by two female winemakers from California, the celebration aims to support and empower women seeking to enter the wine business. Their website features dozens of accomplished women and their stories, and invites visitors to nominate more. They also offer scholarship and donation resources to help women on their journey. 
    • Dream Big Darling – a non-profit aiming to help women in the early stages of building their wine careers, they offer education, mentorship, community and access to opportunities.
  3. And perhaps most importantly, drink wine made by women! The wines featured below are all available in the shop. Or ask a staff member for guidance finding MANY additional women-made wines we carry in stock.

Anónimas Wines

Winemakers Cris Yagüe Cuevas and Maria Falcón make Albarino from their home base in the northwest Rias Baixas region of Spain, and also source grapes from other areas of Spain to create highly-rated wines. “Anónimas is a project from the vine to the consumer, a tribute to the anonymous women that should have had their place in history and were never recognized. We collaborate with other women in the world of winegrowers, winemakers and enologists to make these personal wines.”

Anónimas Albariño Os Dunares Rias Baixas 2022 – $25.99

This Albariño is grown less than a mile from the ocean on 30+ year old vines, using sustainable winegrowing processes. No oak aging, unfiltered, this natural wine is dynamic and fun to enjoy on its own or with seafood or Manchego.

Anonimas Wine

Knudsen Vineyards

Page Knudsen Cowles is the owner and managing partner, taking over the family business from her parents, who were some of the first wine pioneers in Oregon in the 1970’s. Fun fact: she also has roots established locally, splitting her time between Minnesota and Oregon.

Knudsen Vineyard Pinot Noir 2019 Willamette Valley – $64.99

This fresh-faced Pinot noir brings light body and a good balance of youthful fruit and complex spices with a whisper of oak in the background. The fruit turns pleasantly tart on the palate with suggestions of orange blossom and allspice, supported by crisp acidity and a pleasantly long finish.

Penley Vineyards

Winner of the 2024 Australian Winemaker of the year, Kate Goodman brings a contemporary winemaking style to the Coonawarra valley. She joins sister owners, Ang and Bec Tolley, to round out this award-winning winery full of women in leadership roles. They make bloody good wine, too!

Penley Cabernet Sauvignon Phoenix Coonawarra 2021 – $21.99

This wine shows dominance of spicy cabernet fruit, a dense ripeness with hints of smoky oak and grape tannin. A wine made to enjoy while young, ripe but elegant, distinct Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon characters are evident.

Penley Vineyards

Zulal

Meaning “pure” in Armenia, Zulal is the creation of Aimee Keushguerian, second-generation winemaker who celebrates native Armenian grape varietals. Her story was recently featured in the documentary, “Somm: Cup of Salvation,” a film about Aimee and her father’s journey to make exceptional wines in one of the most historic, and tumultuous, regions in the world. 

Zulal Areni 2019 – $24.99

Made from the native Armenian grape Areni, this wine brings aromas of red cherries, plums and black pepper. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied with refreshing acidity and concentrated flavors of berries and spices. 

Zulal

Complicating the Black Relationship to Wine: Part 2

Barrel holding two wine bottles
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Kaleigh Swift

Kaleigh has been working with the France 44 events team since January 2023. She received her WSET 1-3 certifications through France 44. Kaleigh also works in communications at the University of Minnesota. In her free time, she enjoys playing and watching volleyball, spending time with her cats, and working on house projects. Kaleigh is an avid vermouth fan and never misses an opportunity to introduce someone to Spanish-style sweet vermouths!

If you read part 1 of this blog post duo, you’ll know a bit more about the early history of fermented alcoholic beverages in pre-colonial Africa, along with some mentions of the first Black viticulturists and vinters in the United States.

Now, we can look more at the “why” behind that history, to help make sense of how we got to today, where Black presence in wine is becoming more visible. This post will look more closely at false stereotypes, Black perceptions of wine, and on my own personal experiences as a consumer and professional in the industry.

While researching the origin of the stereotypes I mentioned last week, which assert that Black people don’t like fuller-bodied, complex wines, I ran into quite a few interesting finds. Several articles that re-affirmed these stereotypes with less than impressive lines of reasoning, some blog posts pushing back, and even a few published research papers.

Quite a few modern pieces hypothesized an explanation for these stereotypes that I think is logical. Racism and white supremacy is a socialization process and system of power that dehumanizes Black and indigenous people, erases their cultures and histories through colonialism, and insists that they are fundamentally incapable of producing complex and “civilized” societies. Through the normalization of these beliefs, especially in America, harmful stereotypes have emerged, rooted in the assertion that Black (and indigenous) people are too uncivilized to understand, participate in, or comprehend the complexities of society.

Black people, almost by default, get excluded from, or written out of wine history because acknowledging our ancestors and their contributions also forces society to reconcile with the fact that, as I mentioned last week, “undoubtedly, where grapes were grown and wine was produced in the new world, slave labor was being used to do so”. Black history and the history of wine are intertwined. We, in fact, are fully capable of understanding wine, having complex palates, and knowledgeably producing quality products.

Articles seeking to broaden the discourse on the Black experience in the wine industry often begin with personal narratives of authors encountering assumptions about their presence at industry events or being directed towards budget and sweeter products. These anecdotes underscore the persistent challenges of racism in the field.

And in my research for this blog, I started to question whether or not this stereotype I’ve been researching, the preference for sweeter wines like moscato among Black wine drinkers, actually existed, or whether it had in some way been manufactured by the industry insisting and marketing folks into believing that was the case.

On the one hand, let’s acknowledge that moscato is an easy drinking wine that is a great intro for folks who are new to wine, or just looking for something a little sweeter. On the other hand, that is the case for all people, not just Black people. And our ability to enjoy wine doesn’t stop at moscato alone, as evidenced by Mother Vines: A History of Black Women and Wine, a research project explaining over 400 years of documented history of Black women’s relationships to wine and exploring this intersectionality between race, class, and gender.

My own experiences of wine have included very little moscato that I can recall. Even prior to studying wine, I purchased primarily Pinot Noirs or Sauvignon Blancs. I was always willing to try new things and found wine to be utterly fascinating.

Some years ago, I started visiting my uncle regularly in the Bay Area, and one of our favorite things to do was go up to Napa wineries. It was during these visits that my journey to becoming a wine professional started. Not because I was in awe of the folks presenting us wines in Napa, but often because I felt like I wanted to know more and my inquisitiveness was often met with derision and hasty answers, lacking depth.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be nurtured by the wine professionals at France 44 who saw my interest as a positive quality and happily answered my questions throughout WSET (a wine certification program administered by France 44), and beyond. I am excited and proud to be Black in wine, and have found a lot of joy in this journey. Unfortunately, this is not the experience of many. We have a long way to go before people who have historically been written out of wine are able to be fully recognized and appreciated for their value and contribution to the industry.