I am in ‘violent agreement’ with my friend and colleague, Michael Franz, that Riesling makes great wine.
Riesling is food friendly and extremely versatile. When in doubt as to what wine to order with food, ordering Riesling — or Champagne — usually works. It is the wine perfect in the restaurant setting, where several people are eating different dishes or there are multiple courses in a meal and you would like one wine to match with all of them.
The problem with Riesling and the reason, in my opinion, that it lacks widespread popularity is the unknown “S” factor, s in “surprise, it’s sweeter than you expected.”
With Riesling, it’s impossible to know the level of sweetness. The level of sweetness of Alsace Riesling — typically held as an example of dry Riesling — varies enormously. Even with the clearly labeled German Rieslings, all Kabinetts are not created equal.
Producers in Australia, a country that had the current claim to a uniformly dry style of Riesling, are muddying the water by sending Rieslings with perceptible sweetness to the US because “that’s the American palate.”
I’ve had winemakers tell me they love Riesling but won’t drink one from a producer they don’t know because they don’t know the level of sweetness. With that giant unknown, how are consumers supposed to embrace the wine? And, of course, the level of residual sugar is not the answer because the perceived sweetness is always a result of the balance of sugar and acidity.
Until Riesling producers come up with a way to inform the consumer about the perceptible level of sweetness, these wines will languish on retailers’ shelves. Which isn’t all bad, because that will keep the price down for those of us who love the wines. But it prevents even us Riesling fans from exploring unknown producers in a restaurant because of the “S” factor.
Now, how about a good white Burgundy with that meal?
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