Riesling

Wine Style:
Wine made from Riesling is light in alcohol, refreshingly high in fruity acidity and has the ability to communicate the character of a terroir through its extract.

It’s always referred to as delicate, racy, nervy and stylish wines that cover a wide spectrum of flavors from steely and bone dry with beautifully scented fruits of apples, apricots, and sometimes peaches, through to the exotically sweet flavors of the great sweet wines.

Flavors:

Origin:
Germany

Found:
Alsace, Germany, most New World countries including Australia

Riesling’s twin peaks are its intense perfume and it’s piercing crisp acidity which it manages to retain even at high ripeness levels.

In Germany, Riesling constitutes around 20% of total plantings, yet it is responsible for all its greatest wines. It is planted widely on well-drained, south-facing slate-rich slopes, with the greatest wines coming from the best slopes in the best villages.

It is also an important variety in Alsace where it produces slightly earthier, weightier and fuller wines than in Germany. The dry Rieslings can be austere and steely with hints of honey while the Vendages Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles are some of the greatest sweet wines in the world.

It is grown in most New World wine producing countries and with particular success in Australia’s Eden Valley, where it produces wines with restrained citric and lime nuances that can develop lanolin and kerosene characters with ageing.

Further Reading:
About.com
Appellation America
Cellar Notes
Epicurious
German Wine
Grape Radio
Vinodiversity
Wine Pros
Wine.com
Wikipedia