You might as well admit it. You’re scared of riesling. The labels are weird. There are way too many variations. And who wants to drink sweet wine, anyway?
I get your reluctance to order a glass at the bar (if you’re not already a convert), but you’re really missing out if you don’t try riesling with a meal. It’s one of the great food wines — simply because of the acidity. The wines are generally light and lower in alcohol, so you can safely drink more.
Understand that I’ve condensed a complicated subject into a quick overview, but this is what you need to begin what I hope will be a love affair with the great grape. First of all, let me recommend Chateau Ste. Michelle from Washington State. It’s a great house wine for under $10. But let’s turn to Germany to move beyond the basics. Look for wines from either Mosel (green bottle) or the Rhein (brown bottle), which we know as Rhine in English. The info on the wine label is similar to what I covered last month.
As an example, I’ll use my favorite, Dr. Loosen. The largest print on the label is the producer. If you next see a name with an “er” suffix, that’s the town — Erden becomes Erdener, Wehlen becomes Wehlener. Next is the vineyard of the grape’s origin, like Treppchen or Sonnenuhr. There’s also a year that indicates the vintage of the grapes, which is particularly important in Germany. So far, we’ve followed the same model as in my examples from France or California.
Now it gets interesting. There are two designations of quality wine: 1) Qualitätswein, often seen as QbA, or the higher designation, 2) Prädikatswein. These are usually in small type. What’s more important is another descriptor, representing six classes of ascending ripeness of the grapes at harvest: kabinett, spätlese, auslese, beerenauslese, eiswein and trockenbeerenauslese. They’re in prominent type on the label. These generally also correspond to price and quality.
Kabinett: The driest. A light wine that’s a good match with Asian food, seafood and shellfish, unless there’s a butter sauce. Butter almost always asks for chardonnay.
Spätlese (late harvest): Medium body and usually off-dry. Try it especially with pork or scallops, plus spicy foods like Thai, Mexican, gumbo or curry.
Auslese (out picked): Moves onto the edge of dessert wine territory. Harvesting is limited to particularly ripe clusters. As such, it’s great with desserts, particularly those with apples or peaches.
Beerenauslese, or BA (berries out picked): Rare wine made from grapes picked individually. Made only in the best years. Great with foie gras or salty blue cheese.
Eiswein: Another rare, concentrated sweet wine created when BA grapes are left to freeze on the vine.
Trockenbeerenauslese, or TBA (dry berry selection): This very expensive, elite wine made from individually selected, shriveled raisin-like grapes has the highest sugar levels — with flavors further concentrated by Botrytis fungus, called noble rot. It’s truly the nectar of the gods. Savor each sip on its own.
See? That’s all you need to know. Don’t be afraid. Go to the wine store prepared, grab a bottle and try it with your favorite spicy dish. You’ll be amazed and wonder where riesling’s been all your life. It’s a wine made for food.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 3, 2017.