Washington vs New York Riesling Taste Off

Washington vs New York Riesling Taste Off – Episode #440

April 9, 2008

The Thunder Show is on the road! Coming to you today from Qwest Field in Seattle WA, Gary Vaynerchuk has a taste off between Washington State and New York State Rieslings. Does the home team hold the field for a victory or do the visitors come in and take one on the road?

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Comments on this episode(236) Leave a comment ›

“qotd: living in vancouver been there a couple of times, the drive down…” by Weston
“Howd you like our Seahawks ( our pathetic Seahawks with our backup QB,…” by Dessert Wine Nerd
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Wines tasted in this episode:

2006 Herman Wiemer Semi Dry RieslingNew York Riesling
2006 OS Winery Champoux Vineyard
2006 Dr. Frank Dry RieslingNew York Riesling
2006 Long Shadows Poet’s Leap Riesling
2006 Sheldrake Dry Riesling
2006 Chateau St Michelle Eroica RieslingWashington Riesling

236 Responses

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April 10, 2008

Donna Marie
QOTD: About 3 years ago, did an Oregonian wine junket and briefly visited Washington State(Mt. St. Helens). I yearn to go back and do Washington Wines and Oregon again. Absolutely beautiful and incredible. Definitely visit your NY neighbors, Herman Weimer.
April 10, 2008

joel delon
Hi gary so far from my languedoc countryside too grey and too noisy for me (QOTD : never been in america) like those pink buckets f the jets would like to spit our wines in such buckets where can i order such a handy little tool ? for our local tastings
April 10, 2008

T. Holland
QOTD: Went to Seattle about 3 years ago to visit friends. Had a great time in the city, but by far, my favorite part was going to the Cascade mountains (just a short drive from Seattle). Had a great time camping out there & it was incredibly beautiful.
April 10, 2008

JordanW
QOTD: Never been. Would like to visit.
April 10, 2008

kEITH
Loved the show, I’m a Riesling fan, agree with the Eroica comments (the only one of the bunch I’ve tried).

QOTD: Wife and I vacationed in Seattle area in 2001, one of our all-time fave vacations. My favorite was Mt Rainier, my wife’s favorite was Pike Place (?) market.
April 10, 2008

Pardus
I had the Herman Wiemer Semi Dry Riesling back in 97 or 98 and I loved it. I became a Herman Wiemer fan immediately.

QOTD: I went to Seattle to visit my best man a little over a year and a half ago. Besides seeing a friend I hadn’t seen in several years my favorite part was our trip to the wine tasting rooms outside of Seattle and a visit to the Red Hook Brewery.
April 10, 2008

Leif Sundstrom
Also, just drank the poets leap blind recently at a friends riesling tasting. It was showing differently for me a bit :http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=239490
April 10, 2008

Leif Sundstrom
QOTD: Love restaurants in Seattle: Harvest Vine and Lark (MUST EATS). Also, love my friends that live there, and french fries till 4am (FRITES).
April 10, 2008

YoungDave
FANTASTIC Ep. and location!! I hope you keep up the quest to tape a show from every NFL stadium in the country.

QOTD: Unfortunately, no, but I’d love to. Maybe this fall.
April 10, 2008

A-Gar From Spokane
QOTD: I’ve spent some time in Seattle, but honestly, Spokane is where it’s at. Great wineries, great wines, great people. I’m a big fan of Washington wines, especially Columbia Crest and Hogue, and feel like the best thing about Washington is the people.
April 10, 2008

Caleb
QOTD: Yes, not much, but the little restaurants down on union bay are nice. Nice dinner, nice wine, look back up at the space needle, it’s great!
April 10, 2008

Isaac
Awesome show GV…I’m surprised it wasn’t raining there.
QOTD: Never been there!!!
April 10, 2008

KennyMac
Another great show. Love the format. And re: the QOTD, as a person from Vancouver, BC (a mere two hours north of Seattle) I have indeed been to Seattle and Washington State many times. Favorite parts included the Olympic Peninsula, the San Juan Islands (I can see them from my home), Mt Rainier. Mt Baker and Mt St. Helens (fascinating if you get a chance to visit), many parts of Seattle, the incredible drive through the North Cascades on Hwy 20, and Whidbey Island.
April 10, 2008

Luke
Wow, awesome. I love the passion you put into these shows! You are creating something for people that don’t take themselves so seriously.
April 10, 2008

Syrahhhhhhhhh
GVNC,

First off, let me say what an outright honor it was to meet you, talk to you and shake your hand. Your taping of the Thunder Show at Taste Washington was the highlight of the weekend for us all. And meeting Mott and Matt was great, too. Mott is so humble. The Vayniak party was incredible with 100+ bottles of great Washington juice. We’ll be seeing you during football season then…

My favorite things about Washington State…

1. University of Washington…Go Dawgs! The cherry blossoms in spring on campus.
2. Walla Walla. Amazing food and wine.
3. Olympic National Forest. You love green, right? The Jets…Well, this is GREEN. Moss, the fuzzy kind, not the player(s), waterfalls, it’s awesome.
4. Riding the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle on a cold morning with hot coffee in my hand and never getting tired of Mt. Rainier looming in the distance like a floating ghost and the spray of mist and wind in my face.
5. Washington Syrah. Just the best.
6. Pike’s Market
7. Canlis.
8. The Columbia River.
9. Port Townsend
10. Leavenworth

But not in that order necessarily (well, UW is #1).
April 10, 2008

L
This was an Excellent episode, i really like the wine flight taste-off format. Wiemer makes awesome riesling. The 2005 dry riesling was one of the best i’ve ever had, and i’ve had a lot. I’ve been to the winery, it is a very small operation and wiemer himself is a pretty crazy old dude. Last time i was there, he had just, minutes earlier, crashed his tractor into several cases of wine. You should do a WLTV on location in the finger lakes.

QOTD: asian food
April 10, 2008

CRZYWinemaker
Gary ~ awesome ep. Sorry the Washington wines stole your Thunder !
It was great to meet you at Taste Wa. Hope you had a blast, I sure did.

QOTD: I’ve grown up in the Seattle area and there are a ton of cool places, but if you ever get the chance to go up to the tower club level in the Columbia Tower, it’s a view not to be missed, you can look down on the Space Needle, totally cool !

Cheers ~ Max
April 10, 2008

Lou G
keelen clemons boo.. but that was big of you to wear his shirt in the pacific Northwest , maybe we can trade him back home
April 10, 2008

Chrisfs
QOTD
I have been to Seattle twice. Bith times to see a circus festival called The Moisture Festival. It’s great.
My favorite parts of Seattle are, Fremont, it reminds me of Berkeley,CA, my home. It has the Fremont Troll and the largest statue of Lenin is the US.
I has a neat sushi place called Blue C Sushi. I also like Pike’s Place because I like farmer’s markets in general.
April 10, 2008

Withnail
QOTD: I really like all of Seattle. The Eliot Bay Book Club is pretty great.
April 10, 2008

MagnumGourmet
Gary, thanks for making the trip out to the NW. It was great to get to chat with you a bit at the party as well as the grand tasting.

QOTD – Yep, have been to Seattle. Actually have been living in the greater metropolitan area for just over 30 years now. It is very hard for me to pick just one area that I love the most about the state, so I will have to give three shout outs.

1) The gorge in george – Come see a concert there, you won’t be dissapointed

2) Bellingham – Everyone loves a college town

3) Camping up the Icicle River – Great place to get away from it all
April 10, 2008

Nathan
I’ve been to Seattle and am actually heading there tomorrow afternoon. I love the togetherness of some of the smaller businesses. I also enjoy the pubs in the market…bring on the wines!
April 10, 2008

J Crazy
been to Wash. state but not all the was to Seattle.
Favorite part is by far the nature. Absolutely one of the most beautiful areas of the world and throw on top of that awesome, laid back, openminded people (and WTO protesters )you have an amazing combination.
April 10, 2008

ChrisH
Thanks for the huge shout out Gary!! You rock and I have been spreading some major thunder tonight because of it.

QOTD: I have not been to Seattle even though I have always wanted to ever since the show Frasier was popular haha. I will get there soon though as my girlfriend has a friend who lives there.
April 10, 2008

Glenn
GV, Way to bring the Thunder today, those are my old stomping grounds. I lived for 18 years an hour north of Seattle. What I miss the most are the people. More down to earth and friendly than here in SoCal. Riesling rocks. I really enjoy the Eroica and will now seek out a Poet’s Leap. Wish I had the pull to get you into Qualcomm Stadium here in San Diego but I am just a nobody important.