German Riesling
German Riesling is an interesting experience when it comes to wine, it magnifies the versatility of the grape. Words like, refreshing and sharp come to mind when thinking about this wine, or in wine terms, high acid, generous minerality and lively. It’s a wine which makes you reconsider everything you know about the grape.
Due to the high mineral soils which lay underneath the vines, it creates light, fresh, acidic off-dry style wines which are well balanced and delicious. Generally, German Riesling are fruitier than your traditional Clare valley Rieslings and invoke stone fruit and wet rock flavors on the palate as oppose to citrus driven green apple and lime flavors traditionally found in south Australian Rieslings.
When I think of drinking German Riesling, I’m thinking of a waterfront table overlooking the sunset and with an ice-cold bottle of Trocken Riesling, paired with a one kilogram mud crab lathered in a spicy Sichuan chilli sauce with crispy noodles on the base and an unlimited number of hand towels and wet wipes at my disposal.
German Riesling are typically more ripe wines, with low alcohol, high acidity and minerality. Where German Rieslings shine are the regions of Pfalz, Rheingau and Mosel.
Understanding why so many Australians have never tried German Riesling is a little mysterious. You can buy bottles of ripe and acidic wines which go well with our spicy Asian influenced diet and hot summer days at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, to read and understand a German wine bottle label is more confusing than Morse code, and you would think you need a PhD in decoding to understand what wine you are drinking. This is a big issue to why I feel the wine has not exploded on the Australian market. However, I beg of you to do some research and find out what to look for hen purchasing a wine to your liking.
Below is a link to a website called Wine Folly, one of the most approachable wine books and websites to understand all things wine. The link below will explain how to understand a German wine label.
https://winefolly.com/review/understanding-german-riesling-by-the-label/
