Riesling (Sweet wine)

Overview

Riesling is a light-skinned aromatic grape variety, which is thought to, better than most other grape varieties, be able to express the terroir in which it was grown. Riesling ripens early, and as such tends to perform best in cooler climates. Generally, Riesling sweet wines which are made from grapes which are either late harvested, affected by varying degrees of noble rot, or produced from frozen grapes.

Germany is arguably Riesling’s home country and most famous origin. Around a third of Germany’s Riesling grows in the Mosel region, where varietal wines of increasing sweetness levels – so called Pradikatswein – are the norm. In France’s Alsace – on the other side of the Rhine River from Mosel – they make usually very small portions (vintage permitting) of Late Harvested (vendange tardive) versions or Selection Grains Nobles (SGN) which is made from noble rot affected fruit. Austria’s Neusiedlersee region is famous for production of sweet wines from late harvested or noble rot affected Riesling, and finally Canada’s Niagara Peninsula has made a name for itself with its ice-wines made from late harvested and frozen Riesling grapes.

Typical Blends and Winemaking 

Riesling is mostly unblended and produced as 100% varietal wine. It is often fermented at mid to cooler temperatures, and without any malolactic fermentation, to preserve the racy acidity and crisp fruit flavours.

Inert vessels for fermentation and ageing are the norm, whether large, seasoned oak barrels, concrete, or stainless steel, to conserve Riesling’s primary and mineral expression.

Sweet Riesling wines are usually made from late harvested grapes such as for German Spatlese and Alsatian Vendange Tardive (VT) or from grapes which are affected by noble rot such as is the case for German Auslese, Beerenauslese (BA) and Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA), and for Alsatian Selection de Grains Nobles (SGN). Icewine/Eiswein is another sweet style of Riesling made from grapes which are harvested late and frozen on the vine.

• Riesling (100%)

Typical aromas and flavours

Lime, lemon, green apple, beeswax, jasmine, blossom, lanolin, honey, kerosene.

Food matching

For the lighter Kabinett style, dishes such as scallops with their inherent sweetness works well, especially when accompanied by sweet and citrus dressings; crab is another seafood with inherent sweetness, and which works well. For the slightly sweeter Spatlese style, parfait of foie gras and chicken liver works well as does some Asian cuisines such as for example Peking duck.

The sweetest styles of Riesling, including the higher Pradikat levels (BA and TBA) but also the Alsatian VT and SGNs and Canada’s Icewine, tend to complement refreshing and high citrus desserts, such as desserts with passionfruit, pineapple, apple. Auslese and VT also goes well with a range of blue cheese.