International Riesling Day
Discover the elegant harmony of crisp acidity and luscious sweetness in this renowned white wine varietal from Germany.
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[Drinking] Happy Riesling Day!
- Thread starter Herr Tubthumper
- Start date
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Have a good one!
Insel affe
HellBilly
Way to sweet
Man of Harveys
Well-known member
Lovely stuff. Along with Sancerre it’s the only white wine I can happily guzzle.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
We're talking about the second-best white grape variety, just eclipsed by Chardonnay. All others are way behind.
I don't drink mid-week, but will crack open a bottle over the w/e.
I don't drink mid-week, but will crack open a bottle over the w/e.
McTavish
Well-known member
- Nov 5, 2014
- 1,600
Riesling is made in a wide range of sweetness levels. Some are very sweet and luscious, some are bone dry with lip-smacking acidity.
If you like dry wines, try Tesco Finest Tingleup Riesling. It is made in Australia by the very reputable Howard Park winery. Usually £11.00 so a real steal when the regular 25% offers come around.
For something with a bit more sweetness (which means it goes fantastically well with spicy food, particularly Thai) balanced with crisp acidity, also in Tesco, Pegasus Bay Riesling is probably the finest Riesling from NZ. It is usually £18.50 but often promoted to £15.00 and if you can find it on discount during one of Tesco's 25% off 6 offers, that takes it down to £11.25 which is astonishing value.
North of Robertsbridge
Well-known member
I recall an expensive bottle of dry Alsace Riesling at a two-star restaurant in Colmar. Never had anything close since then, any Riesling that has been recommended is closer to Blue Nun
Insel affe
HellBilly
Ah, I have only ever had Risling when at a friends house in Hamburg, it was way to sweet for me and I have never tried any since.
Forgive my ignorance.
Alsatian Riesling is my absolute go to if any doubt as to what I want to drink - as an aperitif, with food, as a dessert wine, or just to enjoy by itself. As McTavish says, Riesling runs the whole gamut from bone dry to unctuously sweet. It’s an astonishing varietal. Along with sherry, the most underrated wine of them all.
North of Robertsbridge
Well-known member
That could also be said of Tokaji wines. Had a meal at Vadrózsa in Budapest, in the old days when it was one of the rare private restaurants in a nice villa, and experienced a full range of tokaji wines with every course, from the expected sweet to bone dry with fish
- Thread starter
- #10
You sent me some very useful notes a few years ago, these cover the different types and what to look for. I still refer to these.
SkirlieWirlie
Well-known member
- Jan 6, 2024
- 401
McTavish
Well-known member
- Nov 5, 2014
- 1,600
Not ignorance at all - it is a complicated area!
Most people probably think of Riesling as being sweet. It is one of the great missed opportunities of the wine trade that there isn't a standardised way to show sweetness on labels which leads to lots of people not trying wines that they would really like (and some people buying wines that they really hate!) Even wine experts can't always tell just by looking at an unfamiliar bottle what level of sweetness the wine inside has. If I'm not sure, I always ask, but then I have the knowledge to be confident that I'm not asking a stupid question.
Hotchilidog
Well-known member
- Jan 24, 2009
- 9,398
Our away day group had a couple of bottles of particularly nice dry German Riesling at gastropub before our Enciso fuelled victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. I was hoping that we'd repeat the trick before a game Craven Cottage and sadly the Alsatian Riesling let us down very badly indeed. German all the way for me.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
Both German and Alsace Rieslings are well worth persevering with. As with all wines, there are good and bad versions of them. Alsace Rieslings tend to be easier to get your head around because most are dry (and the ones that aren't a usually priced prohibitively).
- Jan 3, 2012
- 17,614
We have a very old friend in Alsace, now over 80, and her and her father‘s favourite grape/wine was Pinot Gris. Her father was a wine producer. I would happily drink Pinot Gris or Riesling till the cows come home.
a few years ago we were in Canada - Tadoussac near Quebec - and went to a nice restaurant just down the road from where we were staying. We ordered some Riesling without taking much notice of where it was from. Ooooh, this is nice, we agreed, and thought it must be either French or New Zealand. It was Canadian. We had no idea of Canada being a wine-producing country!.
Smoky McPot
Member
- May 12, 2009
- 44
Yeah. Sorry.
Kracher, by any chance?
You lucky, lucky bastard.
1971 is the best year of the ‘70s for German Rieslings* without a shadow of a doubt. Most would put it in their top 10 vintages of the century. I’d put it in the top 5 for sure, probably top 3 - precisely because it’s still drinking brilliantly (assuming provenance is ok).
There are basically 5 levels of sweetness of German whites (though inevitably it’s a bit more complicated than that), in increasing levels of sweetness:
Kabinett
Spatlese
Auslese
Beerenauslese
Trockenbeerenauslese
So, a Spat(lese) starts life as just off-dry to definitely off-dry. Age will typically mean it loses some sweetness. Thus, a ‘71 spat wouldn’t be expected to be particularly sweet.
@Herr Tubthumper - yet another free lesson in the wines of your adopted Fatherland.
* Ditto Barolo (and ‘77). NB: Barolo isn’t a German Riesling.
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