8 Reasons why you will love my Riesling
1
ELEGANCE
​
This is kind of a composite quality and difficult to pin down. All the words in this section are essentially metaphors. Rieslings have a cut, a kind of crystalline quality. They are light and refreshing, while simultaneously important and deep. There is nothing in the world of wine quite like a great Riesling.
2
LOW ALCOHOL
​
Cooler climates yield, on average, the lowest-alcohol wines in the world. There’s many a good Riesling with a little sweetness that registers 10% to 11% alcohol. This helps give them their light and appealing nature. Among the many charms of my Riesling is that it doesn’t rattle your brain, and lets you enjoy the next day!
3
MINERALS
One of Riesling’s greatest attributes, for me, is the stoney-mineral scent and flavour it so often carries. It has long been other aspects of wine that have formed the basis of my vinous love affair. However, when a wine starts speaking rocks, earth, underground… I get really interested. And Riesling speaks this language most eloquently.
4
AGING
And now we’ve reached the best of all… well, almost. I love the way Riesling smells and tastes when it gets to five to ten years old. And then those bewitching aromas and flavors of age can continue to develop for another 20 or 30 years or more. Of which aromas do I speak? We call it petrol.
5
ACIDITY
​
Oh yeah! Probably the single component that most makes Riesling sing is its electric acidity. The result for the drinker? A freshness unique in all the world… and like lemon juice, it can cut through a feast of foods (smoked salmon, picnic meats, creamy fish dishes, cooked pork, and so and so on… ).
6
FRUIT
Grapes are fruit…, so every wine has some. When Riesling, usually in youth, brings forth its fruit, I like it, despite my innate fruit prejudice. It’s like white peach, citrus, and mango when the pure fruit excels in its youth… that fruit meshes with the brilliant acidity to form something truly mouth-watering.
7
TRANSPARENCY
There is no grape that better translates its immediate environment into in-the-glass flavours and essences as perfectly as Riesling does. Wine people often froth on about terroir, but if you focus on what the soil contributes to a wine, no grape sucks up the essence of its local soil as readily as Riesling does.
8
FOOD MATCHING
Lastly, the greatest attribute of Riesling. For me, wine is for food; a wine may be great, but if it doesn’t taste delicious with food, I have no interest in it. This is one of the reasons that sommeliers are going crazy with Riesling these days. It marries with a million different directions ingredient-wise and cuisine-wise!
