Rediscovering Riesling
Courtesy of
30 Second Wine Advisor
By Robin GarrOn the
rare occasions when I think about it at all, I wonder why wines made
from the Riesling grape aren't more popular outside Germany and the
few other places where the variety thrives.
Riesling, after all, would seem to have all the characteristics
to make it a hot seller in the American marketplace: It's light,
quenching, fruity and slightly sweet ... hey! That almost sounds
like a soft drink.
What's more, it's usually relatively low in alcohol, making it a
rational option when you want a glass for lunch. And it's one of the
most compatible wines you'll find in terms of its affinity for a
broad range of food. It's good with seafood, chicken, even pork;
amazingly good with the vibrant flavors of Asian and Pacific Rim
cuisines, and it's one of the few wines that really works with fiery
fare.
What's not to like? Nuthin'. And yet I'm as bad an offender as
anyone: I talk a good Riesling game, but I actually buy and drink
the stuff maybe a half-dozen times a year.
The conventional wisdom holds that Riesling is a hard sell to
people outside Germany because the labels are so difficult, and
there may be some truth in that. Start with the naturally
polysyllabic nature of German family names like von Bassermann-Jordan
or Assmannshausen. Add tongue-twisting place names like
Schlossbockelheim or Gimmeldingen, spice with some wine-law language
along the lines of Gutsabfullung ("estate-bottled") and such grape
variety names as the strangling Gewurztraminer
or the amusing Scheurebe, and you might as well sing "John Jacob
Jingleheimer Schmidt" as try to ask for this stuff in an English-
speaking wine shop.
But that explanation is not entirely satisfactory, as Rieslings
from German-speaking Austria and sometimes-German-speaking Alsace
bear simpler labels, and those from Australia, New Zealand, the U.S.
West Coast or New York's Finger Lakes and Ontario, Canada, are
downright easy to pronounce. Moreover, even the Germans are starting
to get the idea, as in the two German Rieslings I feature today,
which limit the main label to relatively simple terms, placing the
hard-to-pronounce bits in fine print on the back.
My personal Riesling resistance is based more on the simple
reality that Riesling is different. It takes a paradigm shift, to
use a current buzzword, to move over from the familiar flavor
profiles of dry French and Italian table wines and their New World
descendants to the entirely different style of Riesling.
But it's a jump worth making, at least for an occasional change
of pace. And now's the time, with plenty of wine from the
outstanding 2001 German vintage still widely available. (Vintage
2002 was more variable, as vintages from this northern-edge wine
region tend to be, but there's excellent wine to be had, as
demonstrated the remarkable Caparoso Riesling from the Rheinhessen
that I report today.)
Finally, from the standpoint of value-hunting, bear in mind that
popularity and price in wine tend to be inversely proportional.
Until the world discovers Riesling, it tends to be priced
deliciously low.
CAPAROSO 2002 DEIDESHEIMER LEINHOHLE PFALZ RIESLING KABINETT
($20)
Very pale straw color with a slight greenish hue, this fine Riesling
blasts from the glass with remarkable fruit-bowl scents of juicy
grapefruit and luscious pineapple, an aroma that demands a taste.
The flavor follows through, a beautiful balance of gentle, just
off-dry fruit and steely acidity, tart and quenching, with a subtle
flinty minerality that adds a serious layer of complexity. This one
will go a long way to recalibrate your palate if you've found
Riesling boring. U.S. importer: USA Wine West, San Rafael, Calif.
(Sept. 8, 2003)
FOOD MATCH: Fine with alder-smoked salmon tossed with
farfalle pasta and a dollop of creme fraiche lightly accented with
Indian spice.
VALUE: Not a low-end Riesling, but a wine of unusual
balance and complexity for this price.
WHEN TO DRINK: Delicious now, not really meant for aging
... but Riesling can do remarkable things with time, so don't sell
its cellar potential short.
WEB LINK: Caparoso Wines' Website, with a fact sheet on
all its wines and information about availability, is online at
http://www.caparosowines.com/
GUNDERLOCH 2001 "JEAN-BAPTISTE" RHEINHESSEN RIESLING KABINETT
($12.99)
Gunderloch uses the "Jean-Baptiste" label, an allusion to a
character in the German dramatist Carl Zuckmayer's play "The Jolly
Vineyard," to denote the wines it considers particularly typical of
the Rhine. This one seems to fit. Very pale in color, transparent
straw with a hint of brass, it offers typical Rhine Riesling aromas
of musky melon with a snappy citric whiff of lime. Its soft and
sippable flavor is focused on pears and apples, a hint of fresh-
fruit sweetness nicely balanced by crisp acidity. U.S. importer:
Rudi Wiest, Cellars International Inc., Carlsbad, Calif. (Sept. 8,
2003)
FOOD MATCH: Fine with alder-smoked salmon over pasta.
VALUE: Reasonably priced.
WHEN TO DRINK: Although Rieslings can age gracefully, this
one is delicious now.
WEB LINK: Weingut Gunderloch offers a Website in English
and German. The English pages begin here:
http://www.gunderloch.de/default_e.asp
WEB LINKS: Want to read more about Riesling? Here are a
couple of good articles from our archives:
* Randy Caparoso, the distributor of today's first featured wine,
is a regular columnist on WineLoversPage.com. He recently filed an
article celebrating Riesling in general and its food-friendliness in
particular. Headlined, "Is Riesling the Greatest White Wine For
Food?" it's online at
http://www.wineloverspage.com/randysworld/foodriesling.phtml
* For an excellent article explaining the German wine
classification system in detail, see John Trombley's report on
WineLoversPage.com, "Knowing the German Quality System for Wines,"
online at
http://www.wineloverspage.com/trombley/praedikat.shtml |
