Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 45

Riesling

by Tara Q. Thomas

Riesling is the grape that every sommelier wishes we'd drink more of.
Seek it out in restaurants and you're likely in for some of the best bargains on the list, as nobody is listing it just to fill space. It's on there
because few wines offer such intense flavor with such transparency, as
well as such an invigorating, appetite-inducing jolt of acidity.
The reason it's not more popular, sommeliers say,
is that too many of us fear that our riesling will be
sweet, a term that's come to be associated with unsophisticated wines. "Some guests are embarassed to
order riesling," says Paula de Pano, sommelier at the
Fearrington House Restaurant in Pittsboro, North
Carolina. "They've heard that sweeter wines aren't
as good as dry wines."
So let's get this out of the way right off: A little
sweetness in your wine is not a bad thing. "It balances all the great acidity of the grape," de Pano
explains. A little residual sugar left in a wine can take
the edge off the acidity, making the wine feel juicier
and richer. (Think of how you might add a pinch of
sugar to tomato sauce to curb the acidity and bring
out the deeper, rounder tones of the fruit, or how
a touch of sugar can help deepen the flavors of a
beef braise.) In the case of rieslings from really cool
climates, like Germany's Mosel, that little residual
sugar ("rs" in wine-geek speak) can keep the wine
from feeling like it's going to strip the enamel off
your teeth.
It's also going to give you a wine that feels plump
and juicy rather than lean and austere, all the while
supporting the fruit with an undercurrent of acidity
and stone flavor.

But when you want a bone-dry white wine with the
accent on acid and earth rather than fruit, riesling
offers plenty of options. Look for the word "trocken"
on any German bottle, or choose wines from Australia or Austria, where the local style is for dry wines.
This tasting starts with Germany, as its wine
regions provide the model for rieslings the world
over. In the Mosel, the combination of steep slate
slopes and cool temperatures result in some of the
most nervy, crisp examples available. But follow it
through to see the many options available. Riesling
excels in many cool regions, including Australia's
Clare Valley, the Finger Lakes of New York State,
Ontario in Canada and Oregon's Willamette Valley.
There are even lean, nervy rieslings coming out of
Chile and New Zealand, as well as the coast of Lake
Michigan.
Dry styles tend more toward stone, mineral and
earth flavors, with pithy citrus notes, while riper
styles often feature peach and apricot flavors, sometimes reaching tropical notes of pineapple, papaya
and mango at the ripest end of the spectrum. Our
tasting begins at the lighter end of the riesling spectrum, with simple, aperitif-ready examples of a dry
style and a fruity style, and works up to an array of
powerful wines best suited for the dinner table.

WINE & SPIRITS

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017

Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 3
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 4
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 6
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 7
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