Wine notes July 2006 Riesling

Today’s wine drinkers are obsessed with grape varieties. Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, etc, get picked over like flavours in a box of chocs. In contrast, I’ve just been re-reading Raymond Postgate’s ‘A Plain Man’s Guide to Wine’ first published in 1953. Mentions of grape varieties are virtually non-existent. I suspect Plan Man didn’t care, he just said “Gimme! Oooh, yummy!” He does have a point.
Ask a wine writer “If there was only one grape what would it be ?” nine out of ten would say “Riesling” (pronounce it “Reece-ling”). Why? Discounting a slight elitist frisson, I’d say it’s because the grape is Mr.Versatility, capable of making anything and everything from lightweight little numbers for drinking in the sunshine to complex jobs with unlimited aging capacity. In styles that range from dry and delicate to sweet and enveloping. Almost the only thing Riesling can’t do is make red wine.
So why do drinkers diss it? Because Riesling acquired a bad press through (incorrect) association with sugar-sweet, nasty, thankfully out-of-fashion German ‘liebfraumilch’. Because certain pundits, neglecting their duty to encourage the newbie, bang on about the whiff of petrol. Who’d want to pay e15 to smell a fart from a filling station forecourt? Lastly, Riesling is undoubtedly an acquired taste. As a fan, I say “persevere.”
Riesling reaches its apogee in Germany where it makes outstanding wines at either end of the taste spectrum. But until the king comes into his own again maybe better to get acquainted via Alsace or Australia. In Alsace, Trimbach, Hugel, Sipp-Mack and Dopf & Irion produce tiered ranges where the ground floor wines (around e12-14, all readily available) give you a hint of Riesling’s greatness – a giveaway scent of crushed grapes, floral aromas, crisp apple flavours and, yes, the slight benzine nuance that you’ll eventually come to tolerate, if not quite love, as ‘characterful’. Go up a level and their wines take on a more serious aspect, offering a package I can only describe as honeyed and opulent, with a pleasing off-dry aftertaste. If you really fancy throwing money in order to get an appreciation of the grape’s potential, seek out Zind Humbrecht (e25+), huge wine of astounding quality.
Flit over to South Australia’s Clare and Eden Valleys for a contrasting style: an initially surprising appley acidity segueing into pronounced lime flavours; crisp, refreshing minerality and, often, a distinctive ‘marmalade’ finish. Names to look out for include Grosset, Mount Horrocks, Pewsey Vale, Leasingham and Petaluma.