Kungfu Girl 2010 Riesling (Washington)

I was fully prepared to dislike this wine.  I generally distrust huge production outfits with gimmicky cartoon labels, and cheap New World Riesling often ends up being an übersweet disaster. The label was inspired by the movie Kill Bill, the scene in which Lucy Liu and Uma Thurman fight it out in the snow.

The wine was much less sweet than I expected from low-budget, mass-produced, US Riesling — it was actually almost fully dry (i.e. it had almost no residual sugar left) and had potent, cheek-puckering acidity.

In the glass this wine was a very pale straw color and a slight effervescence which reminded me of my favorite German Rieslings from the Mosel Valley. The nose was crisp, tart and green:  Granny Smith apple, grapefruit, lime and grass with a touch of pineapple and an aroma like bath salts, sort of like walking into a spa.  The main note on the attack was a clean mineral flavour, which led into waves of vibrant sour apple, pear and grapefruit in the
mid-palate. Aromatic, smooth and tasty with pleasant minerality, off-dry with an obscure but thoughtful finish.

Wine Jargon Notes:

attack/midpalate/finish = when you taste a wine, the initial taste impression you get is called the attack; the final taste impression as and after you swallow is the finish; everything in between is the midpalate.

 

New World/Old World = Old World wines are those that come from Europe; New World wines are those from non-European locations like the US, Australia, South America, etc