Riesling - About Wines from Wine Love

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About Wines - Riesling

Riesling

Riesling is one of the world's finest white wine grapes. Strong vines and slow ripening makes it extremely resistant to frost. Riesling excels in cooler climates, providing an ideal balance of sugar and acid. When desiccated by the Botrytis cinerea (noble rot), the grape produces intensely flavored, highly desire dessert wines commanding equally high prices.

Although best known for Germany's Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Pfalz, Rheinhessen and Rheingau wines, wines from Alsace and Austria attain equal greatness. The sweet German Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese and Alsace's Selection de Grains Nobles are coveted for their high sugar levels and almost endless aging ability.

Those wines from Germany's Mosel region are often used as the comparison for most Rieslings. Possessing lime, pie crust, appley, slate and honeysuckle hints, they are also light-bodied with good acid balance. In Alsace, Riesling is most often made in a dry style, full-bodied, with a distinct fuel aroma. This style is favored among vineyard in California's Alexander Valley north of Santa Rosa.

California Riesling is generally produced dry to off-dry. With high acidity and distinctive floral, citric, peach and pineapple accents, Riesling has developed a huge following. It pairs well with food, and makes an excellent aperitif. The Monterey area is renown for excellent Rieslings.

In other regions, Riesling struggles to maintain its share of vineyard plantings, but it produced to varying degrees (often under synonyms such as White Riesling,  or Johannesburg Riesling) in Oregon, Washington, New York's Finger Lakes region, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America and Canada.

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