I’m not a big fan
of the “ah ha” moment vernacular, especially as it’s used in the wine business,
but I must say I like the notion of wine drinkers experimenting with new wines and
then almost out of nowhere, “they get it.” As the summer plays out in Whistler,
I’m hoping you will reach for a glass of fresh, crisp, tasty riesling, and
after a sip or two, you get it.
Many wine types
believe it’s time the noble white grape that was once the toast of the wine
world, a mere century ago, be restored to its former glory. But the often
referred to “riesling renaissance” has sputtered of late in some parts of North
America, mostly at the store level where consumers have the final choice.
The official home
of riesling is Germany but, ironically, it’s the fresh floral, fruit flavours
of grapes grown outside of Deutschland — in places like Australia, New
Zealand, Washington State, New York’s Finger Lakes and Canada’s Niagara and
Okanagan wine regions — that are leading the rush back to riesling.
A global return to
riesling is all fine with German winemaker Johannes Selbach, a modern-day
riesling ambassador who seems to spend an inordinate amount of time in
Vancouver and Whistler. Selbach, the proprietor of the Mosel-based
Selbach-Oster (at Zeltingen) will take whatever help he can get.
According to
Selbach, “You don’t have to beat down the walls anymore to get people to taste
or buy riesling, that’s past. Worldwide, it’s like everybody has put it back on
the map. We see new business beyond Japan and Hong Kong in Russia and Asia. All
the new markets that were heavily, heavily into red wines are now rediscovering
whites, and riesling is one of them. Even in Germany, believe it or not, people
are drinking a lot more riesling.”
Could riesling’s
newfound success have something to do with its ability to pair well with food?
Certainly he is enjoying a great deal of success with the Selbach Riesling Dry
Fish Label, a wine he designed for food, hence, the fish on the label. It’s
classic Selbach where the philosophy is to make elegant, crisp, low-alcohol
wines packed with flavours. “Our ideal wine,” says Johannes, “is one that
reflects the parents of the wine — the mineral-rich slate soil and the
ripe, juicy riesling fruit.”
Selbach is just
releasing a new “fighting varietal” riesling that may eventually be given the
moniker Dr S. The plan is to take on the market leader Dr L. Riesling made by a
regional colleague, Ernie Loosen, and the Bird Label Pfalz riesling made by
another crusader, Rainer Lingenfelder.
Locally, expect
more and more riesling to appear in restaurants, thanks to some impressive
domestic releases from Joie, Tantalus, Wild Goose, Prospect and CedarCreek, in
British Columbia, and Hidden Bench, Flat Rock, Fielding, Cave Spring, Creekside
and Tawse in Ontario.
In South Australia,
the tangy, and often lime-flavoured rieslings with a whiff of petrol, have a
longer history, in part because of the region’s early German immigrants. While
the warm Barossa Valley floor proved to be challenging to a grape better suited
to cooler environments, much success has been found in the higher, cooler
reaches of the Clare and Eden valleys. Wines that have made an impression of
late include the Grosset, Skillogalee, Plantagenet, Leasingham, Wolf Blass and
Yellow Tail, all now comfortably under screwcap.
Farther south in
cooler New Zealand’s the best rieslings are grown at Wairarapa at the southern
end of the North Island, to Marlborough and parts farther south on the South
Island. There the intense fruit flavours span apricots and peaches to limes and
apples. Most are dry or medium dry with better acid than many of their
Australian cousins. The trick here is to consider serving riesling with cheese.
In this case, riesling can be a terrific match with blue cheese. Two market
leaders in B.C are the Stoneleigh and the Villa Maria.
French rieslings
from Alsace are generally drier than most and often more full-bodied but it’s
the citrus and mineral flavours that make them great food wines. Producers to
look for include Trimbach, Sparr, Hugel, Trimbach and Zind-Humbrecht. All can
stand up to fairly intense food dishes.
Remember the magic
of the riesling can be found at all price ranges. Just for fun, grab your
favourite Thai takeout and a bottle of Blue Nun 2006/2007 Riesling ($11) and
get ready to have a great evening. The surprisingly tasty Blue Nun has little
to do with its predecessors of the ’70s and the ’80s (or the bottle marked
Liebfraumilch), and the price is remarkable.
Whether it’s a
renaissance, a revolution or even just an evolution, riesling is back and it’s
the freshest breeze to blow through the wine sector in a century. All that’s
required to close the loop are consumers to revisit this refreshing,
intellectual white wine. With a month or more of warm weather ahead, the time
to start is now.
REPUTABLE RIESLINGS
Blue Nun Riesling QBA, Germany $11
Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling 2006,
Columbia Valley, Washington $16
Devil's Rock Pfalz Riesling 2006, Pfalz,
Germany $12
Moselland Piesporter Michelsberg Riesling
Kabinett 2006, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany $13
Red Rooster Riesling 2007, Okanagan Valley,
British Columbia $16
See Ya Later Ranch Riesling 2007, Okanagan
Valley, British Columbia $16
Selbach S Riesling 2007, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer,
Germany $17
Skillogalee Single Vineyard Riesling 2008,
Clare Valley, South Australia $25
St. Hubertus Dry Riesling 2007, East
Kelowna, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia $15
Tantalus Riesling 2007, Okanagan Valley,
British Columbia $23
Villa Maria Riesling Private Bin 2006,
Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand $18
Weingüt Lorch (White Label) Riesling
Bergzaberner Altenberg 2007, Pfalz, Germany $16
Yalumba Riesling Y Series 2006, Eden
Valley, South Australia $18
Yellow Tail Riesling
2006, South Eastern Australia $13
Anthony Gismondi
is a globetrotting wine writer who makes his home in West Vancouver, British
Columbia. For more of his thoughts on wine log onto www.gismondionwine.com