The Crestwood Barrel Riesling 2019 is a $5.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington State. And that is about as much as I know about the production details for this wine.For these store brands, I usually can go to the national trademark registry website to find out which wine company owns the brand name. But found that ALDI often owns the brand trademark themselves, that way they can change suppliers if they need to and keep the same brand.The back label does not say much. It mentions artisan winemaking and the best vineyards, which is nice but does not narrow things down much. Though Columbia Valley AVA is a great place for value-priced Riesling.The Mosel region of Germany is basically found zero for the Riesling grape and maybe the finest Riesling in the world originates from there. The vineyards are steep river valley hillsides that are strewn with pieces of slate. The minerals derived from the slate are an integral part of the flavor profile.There is not a great deal of slate in the Columbia Valley, but they do grow very flavorful Riesling grapes. Their Riesling wines often have a real farm fruit stand at harvest vibe about them.Riesling wines are often on the sweet side and even “dry” Riesling can be neutral sweet as opposed to sugar sweet. The Crestwood Barrel Riesling 2019 does not specify a level of sweetness. I would guess from reading the back label that it is off-dry.If a wine, and especially a White wine, has enough acidity it can balance out the sugar level in the wine. Sometimes figuring out if a Riesling is dry or is sweet is not so cut and dried.This is a 2019 vintage indicating that this is a young wine, without much aging ability. No need to buy it before you are ready to drink it. The alcohol content is 13.0%.Crestwood Barrel Riesling 2019 Tasting NotesThe color is very pale butter yellow. The nose is honey, green apple, tangerine, lemon hard candy, melon, and candy spice. I put a good chill on this Riesling and that added to the mouth-feel. This is a wine that is on the sweet side, but the acidity does level that out.It tastes of apple, orange blossom honey, lime, and Meyer lemon. The mid-palate offers tart grapefruit mixed with orange. The acidity is nicely balanced.The SummaryThe Crestwood Barrel Riesling 2019 is a solid value-priced Riesling.It is slightly on the sweet side but not too much.It has plenty of pleasing flavors and a nice balance.It sells for only $5.99, but it is a well-made, very drinkable Riesling.
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