Plat 12
FOCUS ON RIESLING Oz Clarke says it best when describing Riesling. It is the grape rated by wine experts around the world as the top white grape, unfortunately the consumer does not agree, looking at volumes purchased. Riesling is like the smart kid at school that shines in the classroom, receiving adoration from teachers, but when they step onto the playground their social skills aren't quite there and they never get chosen to play in the various school ground games. Teachers keep telling them that they will make new friends and this is just a phase but the status quo remains. Since hosting the Riesling Festival Under the Influence has been absolutely besotted with Riesling and we wanted to share this with you today and hopefully make some new friends for the grape!
A BRIEF (dramatic) HISTORY Riesling has been tracked back to an invoice from the Rheingau in Germany dated 1435. We are fortunate that the Germans are so organised! In the 1800s the wines made from this grape had commanded even higher prices than the finest Bordeaux bottle of red. In the 1970s and 80s the wine saw an epic fall from grace. Germany had shifted into a mass production phase with its wines and even the sight of a German label was enough to put people off buying it. The irony was that the wines that were masquerading as Rieslings often did not have any Riesling in them at all! The wines were made in a sweet, cool drink style, which fortunately has not lasted. The great Rieslings of Germany and Austria are now balanced on a knife edge between sugar and acidity and are truly remarkable wines. German immigrants took Riesling to the new world and it was established in many areas, such as Australia and the United States, as the leading white grape until the surge of Chardonnay.
FOCUS ON THE GRAPE
Riesling is such a special grape because of its incredible ability to speak about the place in which it is grown. It is like a loudspeaker amplifying the influence of soil and climate. For instance, the growers of the Mosel speak about the mineral flavours of wine from the village Wehlen, or the blackcurrant flavours from Piesport clay, or the steeliness from blue slate. What is clear though is Riesling needs two important factors to reflect its terroir most clearly: •
A long and slow ripening season
•
Low yields
This is why the best Rieslings are made in cooler climates. The grapes have a chance to develop the complex flavours they are renowned for but don’t gain excessive sugars at the expense of acidity. Acidity is a key part of a great Riesling. It is also key to understanding where the wines are from. In warmer climes in Germany, such as the Pfalz, residual sugars are low and so is acidity, resulting in a bone dry wine. In the cooler Rheingau a wine with a higher residual sugar might still taste dry due to the sharp acidity in the wine. Acid levels in the grapes are just as important to the wine makers as the sugar levels. Acidity gives Riesling its incredible freshness and make it possible to create a sweet wine of divine proportions, which tingle on the palate and can age for a century.
WINEMAKING There was some debate on whether Riesling should be matured in oak barrels or not. For most people this was never a debate. Riesling is a grape that should not be tampered with too much as its crystal clear fruit and acidity are dampened by oak. Oak is used sometimes is as a replacement for the large stainless steel tanks. These oak tanks don’t impart any flavour into the wine but rather micro oxygenate it, adding complexity. Many Grand Cru producers use these old oak casks to store their wine in. Blending is another question that has been raised. Should Riesling be blended? On the whole the answer is no, it is one of the few varieties that stands beautifully alone. However, some winemakers have blended it with other varietals, like Pinot Blanc, Semillon and Gewürztraminer. This is more often done in warmer climates where Riesling can’t perform as well on its own.
RIESLING WITH FOOD Riesling is a great food wine. It’s acidity gets the mouth watering and ready for food! We will look at styles now, but the endless range of styles for this wine make it easy to find the right match. A light fruity Riesling can be a superb pairing with a salad. More rich, rounder Rieslings are fantastic with Chinese and Thai food. A rich sweeter Riesling from Germany has the weight to pair with a duck or smoked trout. One thing is for certain, drinking a good Riesling definitely gets the taste buds tingling!
STYLES OF RIESLING The best way to approach the question of styles of Riesling is to look at them by country, because each country has unique terroir and unique ways of producing the wine. The natural port of departure is Germany: German Riesling The Germans have perfected the art of Riesling production. Their wines range from the weightier and drier examples from the South (Pfalz and Baden). The further North one travels the more electricity and lightness one finds in these wines. In the North, the vines struggle to ripen and are often planted very specifically, near the river and on warm slopes. If the vineyard is too close to the river, the morning mists can slow down ripening too much, too high and icy winds have the same effect. Terroir is everything in Germany, hence the famous wines being named after their famous vineyards. The Germans also like to have things neat and orderly and have come up with a classification system for their wines, which takes some understanding! The 1971 laws define 4 main categories: • • • •
Table Wine: Tafelwein Country Wine: Landwein Wine from a specific region: QbA Top quality with Pradikat system: QmP • Kabinett: Fully ripened wines from main harvest, can be dry or semi sweet. • Spatlese: Meaning late harvest. Typically sweeter and more rich. • Auslese: Meaning selected harvest: Typically sweet or semi sweet, sometimes with noble rot characteristics. • Beerenauslese: Meaning selected berry harvest: Made from individually selected grapes, typically with noble rot making dessert wines. • Eiswein: Meaning ice wine. Made from frozen berries, creating intensely concentrated dessert wines. • Trockenbeerenauslese: Meaning select dry berry harvest. Made from selected dry berries affected by noble rot.
France (Alsace) Alsace used to fall within Germany but was returned to France just after World War 1. The German influence remains, however, with significant plantings of Riesling. The Rieslings from Alsace are distinctly different from those of Germany owing to their calcareous soils, leading to more full bodied wines with less mineral components. Further, Alsace Riesling is made in more of a French style, with higher alcohol and more aromatic fruit. Rest of the world Austrian Riesling is mainly planted on granitic soils, they are thick bodied with a full mouth coating texture. A typical characteristic is a long finish with hints of white pepper. Australian Rieslings, due to the warmer climate, have thicker skins and result in rich, oily, aromatic wines. New Zealand benefits from its cooler climate making lighter and more delicate Rieslings, more in the Alsace style. The United States makes warm climate examples in California, where the wines have been swiftly overtaken by Chardonnay in popularity. Some producers in Washington State are adopting German styles, leaving the berries on the vines well into winter conditions, creating Eiswein. South African Riesling is limited by the warmer climate in the country but with the discovery of new cooler climates some of the success stories are remarkable. For instance, the Paul Cluver noble late harvest in Elgin has won even German recognition. But‌ what does it do for flavour? The reason we love Riesling is for the incredible flavours and aromas that it offers. This is exacerbated by the range of styles out there. Flavours in Riesling include; green apples, grapefruit, peach, honey, rose blossom, cut grass and in aged examples even a hint of petrol! What enhances these flavours is the electricity in the wines caused by the sharp acidity, making even a sweet Riesling as sharp as a razor. Enjoy!
PREMIUM 12