Riesling, Right Now!

Phở Mo’

2nd Edition

A series where we order take-out Phở from different places around town, and then taste a few wines to see how they play with that particular soup selection.

Then, we report back to you here.

October 28, 2026
Soup Two:

• Mekha Vietnamese Restaurant; Mì Quảng – Vietnamese Turmeric Noodle Soup

Wines selected:

• • Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Riesling Sur Lie 2022 $29.50
  • Karlsmühle Kaseler Nies’Chen Kabinett 2020 $19
  • Merkelbach Kinheimer Rosenberg Spätlese #3 2018 $31.90

This soup is really, really good!

Like, in a fortifying-me-against- all-the-rain-and-no-longer-ignorable-early-evening-darkness kind of deeply satisfying sort of really good. All said in one breath, this is an umami rich, deeply layered, unctuous, and fully loaded bowl of noodle soup. (Yes, I acknowledge that I’m already taking liberties with this series by pairing a non-pho. No apologies. It’s superb!)

 

Every single one of these wines sang with the soup, but there was a collective favorite.

 

Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Riesling Sur Lie 2022 

This wine comes across as the lightest, leanest, and driest of the line-up. There’s enough textural richness in the glass to handle the spiciness of the soup, and a cooling herbal edge that lights up with the scintillating little green blips of freshness from mint tangled in with the shredded cabbage and bean sprouts garnish. The restaurant provides a lime wedge to squeeze over the top of the soup after garnishing with sprouts, cabbage, jalapenos, and sesame crackers, which adds a pleasing jolt of acidity to cut through the rich broth and fixins in the bowl. The Steinmetz amplifies that limey zap, calling for sip after slurp, and slurp after sip. At least until you run out of one or the other.

Karlsmühle Kaseler Nies’Chen Kabinett 2020

At a modest 8% abv this is an ideal bottle to bring to lunch. It was also the crown favorite today.  As with the Steinmetz, this wine brings cooling green notes and crystalline acidity that emphasize the fresh elements in the bowl. There is, however, just enough sweetness in the Karlsmühle Kabinett that it works wonders with the spicy heat in the dish, neutralizing the burn without ever de-emphasizing the layers of flavor from slices of jalapeno, chili oil, and turmeric. There’s precision and clarity in the combination of soup and Riesling, as though the wine disappears into the rich broth, tangled ribbons of yellow noodles, and pink shrimp, lighting it up from within. By bite-three, sip-three, everything seems to taste even more expressively of its own separate ingredient self, without the initial balance ever being altered.       

Merkelbach Kinheimer Rosenberg Spätlese #3 2018

This is undoubtedly the most serious wine of the line-up, powerful and vibrant, it delivers the biggest impact. There’s a remarkable tension between the depth of spiced honey flavors and the purity of fruit in the wine that works to transform the soup into something even more deeply flavorful and umami. The combination emphasizes delightful surprises like interplay between sweetness in the wine and the singeing spice of a deeply savory chile paste served alongside the soup, or crushed peanuts that become even more golden and buttery as they’re crunched and chased with with a sip of the Merkelbach. Where the Karlsmühle seems to light up the soup from within, the Merkelbach seems to envelope all its layers. Delicious, and profound.  

 

Critics notes for the featured wines:

• Steinmetz Wintricher Geierslay Riesling Sur Lie 2022 $29.50
  • “The 2022er Wintricher Geierslay Riesling Sur Lie was fermented in stainless-steel tank down to off-dry levels of residual sugar (14 g/l). The nose shows plenty of minty freshness, but also a green streak of greengage, freshly cut herbs, fennel, laurel, green apple, and lime blossom. The wine is quite light on the palate, with a hint of smoothness, which quickly gives way to tension with the arrival of a slightly sharp acidity and a fair amount of tartness. The finish is a little sharp and abrupt for the moment, which suggests that this wine should be left to age a little bit. 2025-2030+.” –Mosel Fine Wines
• Karlsmühle Kaseler Nies’Chen Kabinett 2020 $19
  • 91 POINTS FALSTAFF “The Kabinett from the old vines attracts more with gentle restraint than demonstrative aromatics. The fruit is discreet with hints of peach and gooseberry, a touch of icing sugar encourages sweet expectations. On the palate, a creamy orange mousse is ingratiating, the taste of grated citrus peel adds a spicy nuance, and icing of the finest kind provides a seductive finish.”
• Merkelbach Kinheimer Rosenberg Spätlese #3 2018 $31.90
  • 92+ POINTS JOHN GILMAN “The 2018 Rosenberg Spätlese AP #3 from the Merkelbachs is a touch more mineral in personality and has just a bit more mid-palate stuffing than the AP #2 version, but without sacrificing any of the classic filigree of this Prädikat level. It is also the more reserved of the two bottlings in its youthful phase, offering up scents of apple, pear, a beautiful base of slate, incipient notes of bee pollen, violets and iris blossoms. On the palate the wine is pure, medium-full and quite solid at the core, with lovely mineral undertow, zesty acids and fine focus and grip on the long and nascently complex finish. This is the Rosenberg Spätlese from 2018 that is going to demand a bit of bottle age before it starts to blossom, so the AP #2 is by far the better selection for those who are predisposed to want to drink their Merkelbach Spätlese on the early side. But, this wine will age superbly. 2024-2055+. 92+.”

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to read this latest episode of Riesling, Right Now! Phở Mo’ edition no. 2.

 

Cheers,

Ksandek