Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Cèpage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog. Today’s post is a note on Riesling from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region of Germany. A good topic for a future post is a more in-depth discussion of this and other wines of Germany, but we’ll just hit the highlights for now.
Riesling has a bad reputation among many wine drinkers because of its history in the U.S., notably innocuous, poor quality wines such as Liebfraumilch and marketed as Blue Nun, Black Tower, Zeller Schwarze Katz, and similar names. On the contrary, Riesling can be thrilling, soaring to heights of few white wines, with complex aromas and flavors, and a wonderful accompaniment to food. Citrus, especially lime, peach, apricot, flowers, and exotic mineral notes are often present.
Most German Riesling sold in the U.S. does have some residual sugar (natural sugar from the grape that is not fermented completely to alcohol), but high quality wine is balanced by steely acidity to keep it from being cloying and to enable excellent pairing with food. Dry styles are also available, termed “trocken,” and Rieslings from other regions such as Alsace in France, Wachau in Austria, and Clare Valley in Australia are available in dry styles. Mary and I have found few American Rieslings that are as balanced, complex, and delicious as a good Mosel Riesling, but there are some noteworthy exceptions from hillside areas in Napa Valley and the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County.
Here’s a label from a Riesling we enjoyed recently. As you can see, a German wine label can be difficult for Americans to understand. Let’s talk through it to help you with interpretation.
- At the top is the name of the producer, Max Ferdinand Richter.
- The estate is located in the village of Mülheim in the Mosel region.
- Familienbesitz seit 1680 is translated in English to “family owned since 1680.” Amazing!
- The vintage is 1992, a mature wine. Riesling can age and improve for decades.
- Sonnenlay is the specific vineyard site in the village of Mülheim, meaning that all the grapes for this wine came from a single vineyard. Sonnenlay means “sun and slate.” This vineyard is southwest-facing, which means it gets maximum sun exposure for optimum ripening in the cool northern climate. Slate is a common mineral component.
- Riesling is the grape variety, of course.
- Kabinett refers to the level of ripeness when picked and is the lowest ripeness level for high quality Riesling.
- Qualitätswein mit Prädikat is translated to “quality wine with distinction,” which is the highest quality level.
- The A.P. number, or “amtliche Prüfungsnummer,” is a specific identifier for this wine. It is typical for a single producer to offer small quantities of many different wines, even from the same vineyard.
Mosel-Saar-Ruwer is the specific wine-growing region.
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| Village of Mülheim with steep vineyards sloping to the Mosel (clipped from Blue Petunia's Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/) |
Riesling pairs well with the usual fish and poultry white wine companions, but it is much more versatile. We love it with sushi. It is fantastic with any spicy dish such as many Asian foods and Cajun cuisine. Think about crawfish etouffée or red beans, rice, and andouille sausage. Now we’re talking! One of our favorite parings is with pork roast or pork tenderloin. It is wonderful for cooking, too, such as adding to sauerkraut. We had this particular bottle with a dinner of roast turkey and dressing. Here are my notes on the wine.
Max Ferdinand Richter Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Mülheimer Sonnenlay Riesling Kabinett 1992. We both loved this wine and thought it was delicious. It was golden from the bottle, reflecting its age. The aromas were lovely white flowers, gardenia or orange blossom, lime citrus, peach or apricot, and mineral notes. The palate had wonderful freshness, a beam of zingy, mouthwatering acidity, and delicious apricot, lime, a honeyed quality, and a slatey minerality. The petroleum note that sometimes appears in mature Rieslings was not present. The fruit flavors weren't exactly the perfectly ripe, fresh flavors of a young wine. Instead, Mary termed the apricot quality more like a nectar, like a dried fruit, but not candied. Beautifully balanced, complex, long-finishing, an excellent wine. 8.0% alcohol. It is a terrific value at $20.
That’s our post for today. Try a nice Riesling from the Mosel soon. If you haven’t had much Riesling in a while, you might be surprised at how much you like it. Keep coming back to Cèpage et Cuisine for more posts on wine and food. In the meantime,
Cheers!
Brian♥Mary
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