Riesling Wines

It can be. Most Riesling is fermented dry, or close to dry. It also makes exceptional off dry and extremely sweet wines, with and without the assistance of botrytis.

Riesling is a white grape that makes plenty of styles, from dry to very sweet. The best dry wines are lean, acidic and offer exceptional fragrance and potentially some minerality. Lemon, lime, green apple, grapefruit, beeswax and jasmine aromas and flavours are considered typical. Some would add petroleum into the mix, though winemakers are divided as to whether this is a varietal character or a fault. The fruit is ready at relatively low sugar levels, making for wines of 11-12.5% alc generally, riper fruit kills off the aromatics which are key to Riesling’s beauty. Riesling pretty much never sees malolactic fermentation nor oak ageing as these winemaking artefacts, so useful in the production of Chardonnay, strip away the essence of good Riesling.

Rizza is up there with Chardonnay vying for the title of best white wine on the planet. For a while there in the early 1800s Riesling was the most expensive wine you could by. These days world class examples can be had for 20 to 30 bucks a bottle. Some might say criminally cheap, we say thank fark! That said, Egon Muller’s top Riesling, the Scharzhofberger will set you back a lazy 25k. Riesling is thought to originate in the Rhine region of Germany (circa 1400) and, unlike Chardonnay, has fairly specific climatic needs in order to make good wine. The best in the world come from Germany (Rheingau and Pfalz), France (Alsace), and Australia incl. Clare, Eden, Mount Barker, Frankland River, Porongurup and parts of Tassie.

Dry Riesling pairs well with vego, chicken and seafood dishes, esp. those without a heavily flavoured sauce. Sweeter Rieslings go beautifully with spicy foods, blue cheese and the really sweet stuff can pair very well with desserts.

Riesling is great when first bottled but can undergo a bit of a hibernation period once it hits about 12 months of age… sometimes described with the phrase ‘the sleeping lady’. As it emerges from its rest, the wine evolves with the texture broadening and flavours deepening. The expressive and floral fruitiness of youth morphs over time into stone fruits, jasmine, honey, beeswax, toastiness and sometimes petroleum aromatics. A good Riesling should still be awesome at 10 years of age. Great Riesling can improve for 50 or more years in bottle.

Yep, pretty much without exception, although serve it too cold and you’ll lose some of the aromatics.

Depends on the wine. Riesling, being low in ph and high in acidity, generally lasts longer when open than most other varieties. That said, if the wine is 5+ years of age you should probably drink it in one sitting. With a young one, recork or recap and whack it back in the fridge if you intend to save some for the following night.

It’s the white wine most of us here at winedirect.com.au would take with us to a desert island. There’s a bit more on Riesling here.