I’MMA LET YOU FINISH… BUT RIESLING IS THE GREATEST GRAPE OF ALL TIME
RIESLING IS LIKE BEYONCÉ
Riesling is timeless. It is beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated. It goes with everything. It is perfect. And it is the greatest grape of all time.
All the other grapes aspire to be Riesling, but they can only dream.
You’re probably reading this thinking, “Wow, I guess she REALLY likes Riesling.” Um… Yeah. I do. I’m not the only one who loves Riesling so much. In fact, it’s one of the few grapes that actually has a freaking birthday - March 13. Yes, Riesling is a Pisces.
All that astrology stuff aside, people really dig Riesling. And if you like to eat spicy food and have a wine that pairs perfectly with it, you probably will too.
But let me tell you, I wasn’t always a huge Riesling fan.
I was skeptical of Riesling when I just started trying wine, and I think a lot of people newer to the world of wine have issues with Riesling. They think Riesling is sweet. Perhaps they had some sort of ultra sugary, $5-$6.00 Riesling from a really hot place that shouldn’t be growing Riesling at all.
Today, we’re going to be discussing the origins of Riesling followed by 4 reasons why you really need to add Riesling to your rotation of wines. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.
THE ORIGINS OF RIESLING
The history of Riesling can be traced back to 1435, where it was first mentioned as, “Riesslingen.” In 1552, Hieronymous Bock (it’s quite a name, I know) modernized the study of plants and the spelling of Riesling. He believed that Riesling originated in the Rhine region of Germany.
Riesling developed a fanatical fanbase. So much in fact, that the Elector and Archbishop Trier, demanded that all “bad grapes” be replaced with Riesling.
During the 1850s, Riesling was extremely popular - more popular than some of the wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux to be exact.
In the modern era, Riesling entered the limelight in the 1990s. It has been steadily rising in popularity ever since.
4 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD DRINK RIESLING
IT’S AN LBD WINE
Riesling is a, “little black dress,” wine which means it goes with everything. This wine is a high acid, steely, and mineral driven wine that is lighter bodied and pairs pretty much perfect with any type of food.
Like Christian Grey, there are 50 Shades of Riesling.
SOME Rieslings are sweeter - especially if you pick up some Rieslings from the Mosel Valley in Germany. But to say that all Rieslings are sweet is a blanket statement - and an unfair one. The Pfalz, for example, produces Rieslings with glass-like precision and a tense, racing acidity.
With all that in mind, once you know the type of Riesling you like, and more importantly the perfect Riesling for each meal, you will understand that Riesling literally goes with EVERYTHING!
Are you having Indian food? Thai food? Sushi? Ethiopian food? Mexican food? Fried chicken? Turns out Riesling is a perfect go to wine because it is the perfect balance of sweetness, tartness, and minerality.
AGABILITY
Here’s a secret fact that nobody’s probably told you — Rieslings can age. Some for 20 FREAKING YEARS!!!
Because they have such high acidity, they are able to age better. If there’s a Riesling you really love, I recommend buying more than one bottle and letting it hang - when stored correctly of course.
If you want to age your Riesling, I suggest storing it in a place - laying it down sideways of course - that is dark and cool. You don’t need some insane wine cellar to be able to age your wines. Just keep this in mind — what kills off a wine’s aging potential are a few factors. Light exposure, vibrations, strong odor, and heat. So above a washing machine is not a good vibe, neither is a garlic field.
Good places to store a wine you intend to age would be a temperature controlled environment in a garage, under your bed, or even a closet - as long as it doesn’t get terribly hot in there.
LOW ALCOHOL
Rieslings typically hover in around 8-12% alcohol. That’s really low when you consider some of the higher alcohol Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa that come in at 14.5-15%, or even warm climate Chardonnay that usually is around 13-14%.
If you’re looking to find a white wine you can enjoy multiple glasses of without worrying about overindulging - Riesling is the grape for you. I personally do not enjoy wine because of the alcoholic component of it. It’s actually my least favorite part.
If someone can create a non alcoholic wine that has all the complexity of wine, minus the effects, I’d probably drink it. But since that doesn’t exist yet, I tend to gravitate to wines with lower alcohol. If you’re the type of person who enjoys wine for the sake of it - the flavors, the stories, and the experience - Riesling is a great option.
ULTIMATE FOOD WINE
There is a spectrum when it comes to, “food wine.” For some, a food wine is a wine that is hard to have on its own. This means high alcohol, young, peppery, really tannic wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. These wines literally have no chill in them, so they need some food to mellow them out. In the case of Cabernet Sauvignon, it would demand a heavy meal like a nice juicy steak or some kind of hearty plant-based dish.
From personal experience, these were the, “food wines,” I was exposed to at a young age. And for the longest time I thought a wine had to be some enormous tannic sort of wine that couldn’t be drunk alone in order for it to be a good food wine.
If you wanted to put the analogy in beer terms, it would be like thinking the only beer that goes with food would be a Guinness.
Riesling, however, is on the other end of the spectrum.
Riesling is a food wine because of its acidity. The acid in this varietal has a palate cleansing superpower that will have you covered between bites of your favorite dish.
In addition to that, it manages to touch on every sort of flavor from sweet to fruity, to dry. Think of Riesling like a flavor prism of sorts. Like a prism refracts light and produces a rainbow of colors, Riesling is able to bend and refract, hitting every flavor on the spectrum. Because of that, it is able to pair with a rainbow of foods.
And now, let’s get to the
PICK OF THE WEEK: Trefethen Dry Riesling 2020 $26.00
The Trefethen Dry Riesling is a wine I used to rep, and man I repped that sh*t with pride.
I was debating which Riesling to feature on this post, because it’s such an exalted grape and one of my favorites if ya wanna know the truth. So I was thinking back to all the Rieslings I’ve had - I’ve had many in life - and this one always stood out to me. It stood out to me because I viscerally remember the moment I first tasted it.
It was my first tasting working for a major distributor - and naturally I was terrified. This was one of the wines my boss told me to bring to the account we were tasting on wines at the time and I remember having it like it was yesterday.
I’ll be honest, I was super skeptical about a Dry Riesling being produced out of California - because I’ve had my fair share of Cali Rieslings that were anything but dry and interesting, but this one knocked my socks off.
It was literally mind-blowing. 🤯🤯🤯
What I was expecting was a Riesling that was a bit cloying and kind of sweet, like many Cali Rieslings are.
But not this one.
The Trefethen Dry Riesling was bone dry, with this crisp laser-like and focused acidity. Anyway, this wine was always the go-to wine I recommended when clients were looking for a Riesling for their glass list. It was an amazing value - and still is today. You can be assured, if I ever see this wine when I’m out at a restaurant I’ll order it, because I know it’s going to be excellent.
Another thing that makes the Trefethen Dry Riesling interesting is this an almost saline quality to it - so if you’re a fan of Muscadet or other very acidic white wines, the Trefethen Riesling will be your newest white wine obsession. It is steely, like gunmetal, and had an insane amount of power behind it. Yet it is also crisp, elegant, and refreshing. Expect aromas of lime, ginger, and pepper - making this the perfect wine to pair with Thai Food.
I’ve always found this wine’s balance of elegance and power to be fascinating. There’s a laser-like precision here and it dances with this vibrating, pulsing tension and acidity. Basically, this Riesling doesn’t f**k around.
If you were to taste the Trefethen Dry Riesling blind, you’d probably think it came from somewhere like the Pfalz, Germany. And Pfalz Rieslings are legitimately my favorite Rieslings in the entire world - can I get a holla for Müller Catoir?? For those who aren’t familiar, this Pfalz located producer makes some of the most incredible, tension-filled, age worthy Rieslings in the world. Trefethen’s Riesling actually made me think of this amazing German producer. Like I could have pictured this Riesling as some sort of distant cousin to their wines.
Anyway, the Trefethen’s are actually pretty OG status in Napa, and they’ve been making this bad boy since 1974. So the next time you’re out and about, looking for a bone-dry, electrifying, badass Cali Riesling - look no further than Trefethen.