Off the back of a wine giveaway we’d organised a few months back with the nice folks at Blue Nun, we’re going to take a crack at two of their wines.
The first…one of their Rivaner Riesling blends, and the second…one of their sparkling, gold infused white wines.
No hype, just German themed wine drinking.
“Lesen Sie weiter!”
Blue Nun Rivaner Riesling 2013
Rating
Price
£5
Backstory
I dunno if you could say that Rhineland based Blue Nun were singlehandedly responsible with popularising Germanic wines in the UK, but they sure had a big effect in putting Riesling on the British palette’s radar screen (such a stupid metaphor – can you imagine a giant British tongue with a radar dish on it?).
Apparently very popular in the 50-70s – as a ‘Liebfraumilch’ wine, these days it seems to have fallen out of favour – though Blue Nun actually go all the way back to their launch in 1923 by H. Sichel Söhne.
Anyhow, it looks like these guys have made a comeback – apparently positioning themselves at younger women, supposedly a larger wine buying demographic than younger men.
A couple of other wine commentators have said that the quality of the wine has improved since those halcyon days – that said, if the way my parents responded to a crate showing up at our door is any indication, the brand still has some preconceptions to overcome…
In A Nutshell
This is, I suppose, a slightly sweet, white ‘table wine’.
It’s non controversial, non polarising and middle of the road. There’s not too much to love and not much to hate. It is also reasonably priced.
So yeah, not too characteristic and not as fun as some of the Rieslings I have enjoyed in the past… but I certainly wouldn’t turn my nose up at it.
On the contrary, I quite enjoy it ^_^
First Impressions
Some almost…foamy bubbles come out when poured into a balloon glass. Can’t say I have seen that before. I love the bottle, very distinctive – wouldn’t it be fun if the wine came out blue in colour? It turns out instead to be a pale white.
Nose
The first impression is of a generic white wine – with a very slight richness that I would not go so far as to describe as creamy. A not so aromatic, sharp and semi floral thing.
It seems to get more pronounced once it’s sat there for 10 minutes or so – maybe because of the oxidation, maybe because of the wine reaching room temperature. Still, even if you leave it…it doesn’t surrender all that much else to your olfactory senses.
The richness comes out on the nose a little more when aerated. oddly, the sweetness seems to be toned down, but more pronounced on the palette.
Speaking of the palette…
Palette
Initial impression is just a hint of florality and sweetness – I guess a tiny bit honeyed. In terms of body it is quite thin, and medium dry to off dry(?). This however seems to feel mainly steamrollered by the drier notes.
There’s also a ‘clementine-esque’ citrus sweetness thing going on in here,
It seems to get a little better when allowed to breathe for 10 minutes. I find it to be pretty easy drinking
Aeration with Wineweaver Aerator seems to make it sweeter but kinda amplifies the one dimensionality of the wine. When you do it this way there’s like 3 seconds of nice sweetness and then the sharp notes derail it.
This amplified sweet and dry combo kinda splits the taste even more markedly….
Sometimes the sweet and sour tastes in a wine complement each other. Here they seem to fight over your tongue in a slightly schizoid manner. It’s not enough to derail enjoyment of the wine all that much but not really an… elegant balance.
Finish
Pretty fast. The dryness and citrus linger a little but are done quite quickly. The citrus sticks around for longest.
Verdict
It’s not a memorable wine, but it is drinkable all the same. All in all, not bad.
For £5 it’s pretty well priced. It’s also low in alcohol, which can either be a good or a bad thing – depending on what kinda results you’re looking for.
How to make the most of this wine:
Air it for about 30 minutes
Then aerate it, if you can!
Doing these takes it from ‘kinda generic’ to ‘more drinkable’.
Blue Nun Gold Edition Dry / 22k Gold Edition Sparkling White Wine
Rating
Price
Circa £10
In A Nutshell
Not exceptional in taste or pricing, but the gold leaf might help you make an impression…
First Impressions
Pale. When opened, the gold leaf surges amongst the bubbles a little like a lava lamp. Smells like most other sparkling wines.
Nose
Dry but if you jam your nose right in you get some floral notes (standard fare with a white wine, yes?) and a little of what might be oak…a slight creaminess. Plus a little wood smoke, I do not know where from! There’s a citrus note that is closest to lemons but not exactly ‘lemonlike’. A mysterious undiscovered citrus fruit? After you habituate you get a delicious kinda ‘sweet wine’ thing going on here
Palette
Light bodied – with a slightly woody bite to it that cuts through the sweetness. Not dry and average in ‘fizziness’ – not over the top but still a little more ‘sparkly’ than I’d like. Obviously the gold has no discernible taste.
It’s crisp (that old wine cliche holds true here) – probably more crisp than sweet when the bubbles haven’t flattened. As it flattens it starts to taste like a semi sweet, off dry white. I like this, More flat pls. The sweet flavours are hard to pin down – it’s not honeyed, I guess it’s like white sugar plus floral notes.
Finish
Yeah, this is a very quick finish. Woody, some citrus and florality and sweetness (but it passes speedily!). Not too memorable but rather drinkable. A relatively unassuming finish and light body is probably what you want to see in an aperitif – it would go just fine when served at the beginning of a meal, or before something stronger.
Verdict
Great presentation. Drinkable – though not memorable. A pleasing amount of residual sugar – not too much, or too little. No danger of being a ‘brut’. Popular appeal without being too ‘saccharine’. A short finish that you don’t get to savour too much – no lingering here.
The price point is reasonable. £10 will probably get you more in taste from other wines, but with the gold leaf you have something quite unusual and something that will probably make an impression too.
All that aise, Blue Nun will probably have to fight some entrenched beliefs about how a sparkling wine should come from Champagne (or more lately, be a prosecco or something from Nyetimber)
How to make the most of this wine:
Serve straight from chilled, and quickly! Once the bottle starts to lose pressure (as in, you’ve left it for a while, and not even that long) – the gold leaf sinks to the bottom of the bottle. Which means that there is an unequal distribution of said gold leaf: looking less like golden sea monkeys and more like…I dunno, a gold deposit (*insert joke about wine being ‘flakey’ here*.)
So, drink fast(er)!
How’s that for useless advice? :3