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Food and drink: Riesling redux

The ultimate summer sipper gets an upgrade

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