I next tried the wine with a commercial shephard s pie seasoned with a Thai garlic chili pepper sauce. Frankly the wine was wasted with this meal. Perhaps, I ll try this food with a bottom of the scale Deutscher Landwein. All was not lost, however. I finished the glass with a fruit juice-based candy snack. This slightly tangy sweet brought out the wine s fruit and acidity.

My next meal consisted of fried chicken cutlets, basmati rice, and green beans in a tomato sauce. It was a fine combination; I really enjoyed the Riesling s subtle acidity. The word elegant came to mind. No, the lower level of alcohol is not a problem. And the wine still tasted great when the food was gone. It tasted of apples and limes.

I first tried the wine with a Bel Paese cheese from the Lombardy region of northern Italy. This mild, buttery cow s milk cheese has a light, milky aroma. The pairing was not particularly successful; the wine was not assertive. I next tried it with a French St Aubin cheese, also a soft cow s milk cheese with a brie-like texture and a stronger flavor. This cheese was too old, it started to smell of ammonia. I won t blame the wine for this problem. But I made sure not to finish the wine, and to give it a shot with a German cheese. The only German cheese available in my favorite imported cheese store was a Limberger. This cheese is famous for its pungent smell, being the target of comedy by Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Abbot and Costello, Looney Tunes and others. Limberger is a cow s milk cheese with a soft interior. The cheese that I bought had virtually no odor, unlike the previous one that I bought decades ago whose smell I still remember. In fact I probably would have never bought another Limberger cheese were it not for these articles. The cheese itself was not so bad but rendered the wine a bit flat. By the way, the Riesling went well with an accompanying mushroom omelette. So we can say that this Riesling was disappointing with the selected cheeses. It might have done better with Gouda or Emmenthaler cheese. There are going to be several Rieslings in this series and we ll make sure to taste them with other cheeses as well.

Final verdict. Because this series is only beginning I want to try several other Rieslings before making any commitments.