Wine Grapes Basic Riesling

Riesling is as unfashionable as chardonnay is fashionable, but there's no question that it is one of the world's supreme grape varieties.

Riesling is not nearly as accommodating as chardonnay about its vineyard environment, but in the right, cool German climate it produces extraordinarily intense, yet fabulously light and elegant, fruity wines; wines which, because of their acidity, can age over many years and still taste fresh. The wines span the spectrum of sweetness, from modern, bone-dry rieslings to the very sweetest Trockenbeerenauslese, made from grapes concentrated by botrytis cinerea, the benevolent fungus known as noble rot.

Rieslings also span the alcoholic range: more so than any other variety. The classic semisweet German styles (Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, and so on) are often 8 percent alcohol or less, while the new dry wines may be 12 percent. Dry Alsace and Austrian rieslings are around 12 percent, while some dry Australian rieslings reach 14 percent, although the norm is lower, especially in the top riesling regions of the Eden Valley (part of the Barossa) and the Clare Valley.

Riesling is not as tractable as chardonnay in the winery either. It doesn't like oak - but there again, it doesn't need to. Its wines have such inherent aroma, structure, and balance, they don't need the added flavor, depth, or richness that new oak barrels give. In fact, new oak destroys riesling's essential integrity.

The hallmark flavors in German riesling range from floral notes, crisp green apples, and slate (especially in the Mosel), to riper fruit (peach and apricot) and spice in the warmer Pfalz, to lemony, mineral characters in the Rheingau. The sweet wines often have aromas of honey, and mature German riesling develops a telltale gasoline smell (which sounds odd but isn't). Alsace rieslings tend to have an appley, steely, mineral character. Australian rieslings are appetizingly lime-scented and become toasty with age (although they are not oak-aged). Australia also produces good botrytis-affected, honeyed, sweet wines, as does New Zealand. California makes sweet, late-harvest rieslings and Canada makes intensely concentrated, sweet icewines.

If riesling is so wonderful, how has it attracted such opprobrium? Although there are some poor wines, the damage has largely been done by wines that have become mistakenly associated with riesling, and by wines posing as riesling. Liebfraumilch and the other very cheap, sugary, watery German wines are mostly made from second-rate varieties entirely unrelated to riesling. Similarly, cheap, semisweet wines from eastern Europe, now labeled laski rizling and olaszrizling, but in the past spelled riesling, have nothing to do with the real thing.