What wine goes with...No. 7.

...venison?  Despite my best efforts to pair a red wine with this brown sugar/bourbon marinated game meat - I had two different Cabernet Sauvignons, a Cabernet Franc and a Syrah at my disposal - the wine that actually worked best with the venison was, surprisingly, a relatively unassuming Riesling.  Now, I'm not saying that Riesling is a so-so wine varietal.  On the contrary, many top wine critics (think Hugh) consider Riesling to be the world's finest white grape variety.  So who am I to argue?  It's just that the Dr. H. Thanisch, 2010 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling is, at approximately $20, a reasonably priced and reasonably accessible wine.  Nothing too special.
This Riesling, grown on the steep, slatey, sun-facing slopes along the banks of the meandering Moselle River, is what I'd expect a typical Riesling to taste like.  But what does a typical Riesling taste like?  From bone dry to staggeringly sweet, I am coming to the realisation that Riesling can be a rather delicious wine at any sweetness level.  Well balanced acidity and sugar (with a citrusy, flowery, slatey-minerality thing going on) meant this medium-bodied wine paired well with the sweet, tender dead deer on my plate.  A fact that I can only attribute to the acidity of the wine pairing well with the sweetness of the meat.  So at a measly $20 it was a deer wine after all.  Sorry!