Riesling
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Riesling grapes leaves.jpg Riesling is a white grape variety and varietal appellation of wines grown historically in Alsace (France), Austria, Germany (see German wine), and northern Italy. It is a very old grape, first documented in 1435, in which year the storage inventory of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen (a small principality on the Rhine) lists the purchase of six barrels of Riesling from a Rüsselsheim vintner.
Riesling is suited to relatively cool climates. Riesling wines from Germany are traditionally sweet to medium sweet, but those from Alsace and Austria tend to be dry (sec) or just off-dry (demi-sec). Dry German Rieslings are increasingly popular in Germany since several decades, and are labeled as trocken. Other names for true Riesling - though these are only used in the United States - are Johannisberg Riesling (named after the famed Schloss Johannisberg), White Riesling and Rhine Riesling. Many grapes that incorporate the name Riesling are not true Riesling. For example, Grey Riesling is actually Trousseau Gris, an unrelated grape. Schwarzriesling ("black Riesling") is also known as Pinot meunier, a grape used also in the production of Champagne.
Riesling is also grown in the other areas, notably Australia where the grape produces a distinctive crisp, dry and fruity wine. The Clare Valley and Eden Valley are both notable for the quality of their Australian riesling. In North America, Riesling is usually grown in cooler regions, such as northern California, New York, Michigan and Ontario, and shows promise in the Pacific Northwest. It is also grown in cooler regions of New Zealand and South Africa, and the quality is improving significantly in the New World as more suitable sites are found, better quality vines are planted, and the vines age.
Riesling is one of the grape varieties considered to best express the terroir of the place that it is grown, much more so than many other white grapes.
The most expensive wines made from Riesling are late harvest dessert wines, produced by letting the grapes hang on the vines well past normal picking time. Through evaporation caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea ("noble rot") or by freezing, as in the case of ice wine (in German, Eiswein), water is removed and the resulting wine offers profoundly richer layers on the palate. These concentrated wines have more sugar (in extreme cases hundreds of grams per liter), more acid (to give balance to all the sugar), more flavors, etc. Due to its concentration, late-harvest Riesling is among the longest-lived of all wines. The beneficial use of "noble rot" was discovered in the late 18th century at Schloss Johannisberg (when the permission from the Abbey of Fulda, which owned it, to start picking the grapes arrived too late, the grapes had begun to rot, yet it turned out that the wine made from them was still excellent and actually better).
Riesling is a very versatile wine to have with food, because of its balance of sugar and notable acidity. It can pair with white fish, or with pork, and it is one of the few wines that can stand up to Thai and Chinese cuisine. Riesling's typical aromas are of flowers, tropical fruits, and mineral stone (such as slate or quartz), although, with time, the wine acquires a petrol or kerosene note that may be immediately arresting to new drinkers of Riesling while others may find it alluring. Stored well, Riesling can remain drinkable for over a century. It is almost never oaked, which tends to lighten its profile and increase its suitability with many foods.
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