Abarbarnel Riesling

Wine on Passover is essential and usually a conundrum because most out there are the inauthentic confections of marketing departments. So, on the day I headed out to Chez Mom for Passover I stocked up on possibilities at Astor Place. I struck out with a crappy micro-oxed Rioja, there was a drinkable red blend from Israel (a little bit like E&J Gallo Hearty Burgundy), but the best kosher wine I've had in ages was a perfectly swell 2002 Alsatian Riesling produced by Abarbanel. At $18, it was great, kosher or not. It had all of the characteristic notes, intense flower, petrol. It hits the nose with power and promise and then dissolves into a dry and mineral hopping wine, perhaps just a tad dulled by the flash pasteurization of the meshuval practice.