Seeing as how the Vinters Selection Riesling from the Llano Estacado Winery is a wine made in Texas — along with this being the first review for the newly rebooted version of Three Nine Wine — I really wanted to write a glowing account of my experience tasting this bottle I purchased at the HEB Plus at 1604 and Blanco.

But, unfortunately it didn’t work out that way as I found this Riesling to fall squarely in that “too sweet” camp where many Rieslings seem to live. And I say this as someone who’s been enjoying some value priced Rieslings lately. Somehow those wines have found a way to stay true to their Riesling heritage while overcoming their sugary stereotype, where this one — at least for my palate — does not.

Now it’s important to note here that this is NOT the Llano Estacado Late Harvest Riesling which I have yet to try, but rather a blend of juice from a variety sources.

And perhaps this description of the wine from their website may explain what happened with this offering:

A short supply of high quality Texas Riesling has restricted our production. In order to provide our customers with an ample supply of this popular variety, we have utilized premium grapes and juice from Texas, Washington, and California.

Maybe these particular Texas and California grapes mingle about as well as Spurs and Lakers fans?

Now to be absolutely fair, the longer this wine sat the better it got. And by the second day it was almost ok.

Almost.

Though I’ll keep rooting for Texas based wine makers like the Llano Estacado Winery to succeed, I don’t think I’ll be buying this one again.

Llano Estacado Vinters Selection Riesling

$8.99

Three Nine Wine Rating: (2/5)