Riesling, the White Wine of Germany

The Noblest Grapes of the World

1.Chardonnay2.Riesling3.Pinot Noir4.Merlot5.Cabernet Sauvignon

Riesling

• Lettie Teague..” there is arguably no greater white grape in the world than Riesling, opinion of winemakers in Germany, Austria and Alsace, American restaurant sommeliers

• A great Riesling can age longer than many great red wines and develop even more interesting qualities as it ages from floral and citrus to mineral and steel and petrol

• Low alcohol, great food wine, no wine more versatile• Excels at all degrees of sweetness and dryness

Germany—The northern limit of viticulture

• It is a very, very cool growing area.

• Most of the wine that’s made is white, although in the southern parts of the country there are some very nice Spätburgunders, Pinot Noirs that are made

• Since it is cool, the wines will tend to be high in acid

Riesling - Characteristics

• Great transparency of flavor• Little else in the glass than the grape• No oak is used, oak would kill the aroma and

flavors• Unlike chardonnay which can be fixed up with

oak• Little can be done to fix up Riesling, unless less

ripe and requiring additional sugar

Characteristics: Acidity vs Sweetness

• Riesling have high acidity which is great for food• Rieslings are often sweet to offset or balances the acidity• This sweetness is obtained in two ways.

– Residual sugar left from the fermentation ,and in that case it would have to be sterile filtered so the yeast wouldn’t continue to ferment the sugar that’s there.

– Or the sweetness could be obtained by adding a bit of sweet juice that is retained from the must during the winemaking and this is a süss reserve. This is typically sterile filtered and then perhaps added to the wine if it’s dry, or added to bring up the sweetness to balance the acidity in some of these wines that can actually be very tart.

German Riesling

• Riesling is at its best in Germany, despite plantings in Alsace, Austria, and Clare Valley of Australia

• Riesling in Germany is king, it is most expressive of this site than any other

• Loves cool climates• Can subsist with minimum moisture• Can grow on stony infertile ground, often slate

German Vineyards• Ancient vineyards of the Mosel and

Pfalz date back to the dawn of Christianity

• A century after Caesar’s conquest of Gaul

• Careful site selection, requires maximizing warmth.

• It turns out that these are south facing slopes, the sun goes up and down in the southern sky during the season, and so it’s these south facing slopes that get the direct sun rays.

• river valleys have moderate temperature and produce better quality wines

German Wine Categories

• Key point is to obtain enough sugar in the fruit by harvest and by the time the weather cools when no additional sugar being put into the grape

• Sugar accumulation denotes high quality from quality vineyards in Germany.

• The most valuable wines are from grapes that can attain the highest sugar at harvest

• Quality is directly related to ripeness, but sweetness is at the discretion of the winemaker

• Goal: balance acidity, alcohol, and sweetness

German Wine Categories

• QbA wines are the lowest quality category: Liebfraumilch or Blue Nun • Chaptalization is allowed- the addition of sugar to boost up

the alcohol during fermentation

• QmP wines, higher quality category– Chaptalization not allowed at fermentation to

increase the alcohol– In 2007 these QmP wines were now just referred

to as Prädikatswein

Prädikatswein Categories• 5 Categories ( from lowest to

highest sugar content)– Kabinett– Spatlese– Auslese– Berrenauslese– Trockenbeerenauslese

• Minimum sugar requirement established at harvest

• Minimum sugar requirement varies by region

Prädikatswein Categories Kabinett

• So Kabinett is the normal harvest. • The normal harvest means that the local

authorities declare that on a particular day that harvest for that particular region can begin.

• Wines harvested within a few days of this normal harvest are allowed to use the name Kabinett,

• These wines are usually dry.

Prädikatswein CategoriesSpatleses

• The Spätleses are late harvest wines, • Harvested anywhere from 12 to 14 days after

the normal harvest. • So if a grower has a vineyard they can choose

to harvest a certain fraction of it as Kabinett at normal harvest, but then they can leave some of it and harvest it later as Spätlese

• Can be sweet or dry

Prädikatswein CategoriesAuslese

• Now Auslese starts to show some characteristics of the other two categories.

• Ausleses are made from selected clusters, and so during the harvest, the harvesters go through, and select individual clusters that are good and ripe, maybe have a little bit of Botrytis infection

• Ausleses are sweet or dry

Prädikatswein CategoriesBeerenausleses

• Beerenausleses, are selected berries that are harvested.

• These are usually berries that are infected with Botrytis or at least are very ripe. They look somewhat like things that are going to be raisins very soon.

• These wines are always sweet. • They’re typically sold as 375s

simply because they’re fairly expensive wines.

Prädikatswein CategoriesTrockenbeerenauslese

• Trockenbeerenauslese is one category above the Beerenauslese

• Trockenbeerenausleses are made from individually selected dried berries.

• They’re typically infected with Botrytis (noble rot vs bunch rot?– here its noble rot!)

• Botrytis makes these wines have a tremendous flavor impact.

• They’re very, very sweet with flavors of apricot

Sweet or Dry?

• With German wines you can’t always tell– If alcohol level is less

than10% sweet, if 12% dry

• Makes it a very difficult purchase decision

• The quality level reflects the sugar in the grapes, not in the wine

• Some wines are labeled– Trocken: – Halbtrocken, slightly sweet

Rheingau, Nahe/Mosel-Saar-Ruwer

• Vineyards here are very prestigious and classified as fine wine regions. Most important varietal is Riesling

• German wine reputation is that’s made in the Rheingau and in the Mosel.

• These are steep vineyards, and so that means hand labor• These are south facing vineyards along the river. That does

two things. It means that we’ll get the – Earliest ripening because of the south facing and warmer vineyard,– Won’t get winter kill because the weather is moderated along these

river valleys

Rheinhessen/Rheinpfalz

• The Rheinhessen and the Rheinpfalz together are some of the largest wine regions in Germany, and it’s the source of the lower priced wines, for example, Liebfraumilch or Blue Nun

• Each of these produces about a quarter of the German wine production, and so the everyday wines we see from Germany would come from the Rheinhessen and the Rheinpfalz.

• These are gently rolling terrains.• Mechanized agriculture

Winemaking

• Harvest- avoid bruising of skin• Fermentation- chilled to preserve flavors, 50-

65 degrees F, no M-L fermentation, preserve taut acidic bright quality

• Aging- stainless steel or neutral oak• No blending• Can be made bone dry, sparkling to sweet• High acidity responsible for age-ability