Riesling

Identity

Riesling is the grape of tension. No other white in this corpus combines such high acidity with such an ability to carry, without ever losing its balance, the whole range from bone dry to the most concentrated dessert style. It is also one of the few whites that genuinely gain complexity over decades in bottle, developing tertiary notes, petrol among them — the note it is best known for.

Late-ripening, cold-hardy, demanding about terroir: Riesling is a grape of the north, giving its best where others would struggle to ripen at all.

History and origin

A very old variety of the Rhine valley, first documented in writing in 1435, in a register of the town of Rüsselsheim. It then spread along the Rhine and its tributaries — the Mosel, the Rheingau — before reaching Alsace, where it became one of the appellation's seven historic varieties.

On its parentage the VIVC confirms only one parent: Gouais Blanc, the medieval variety, now nearly forgotten, that also produced Chardonnay and Gamay. The second parent remains unknown, the same situation as this corpus's Pinot Noir.

In the vineyard

Riesling buds five days after Chasselas — neither early nor late at that stage — but ripens late, in the second period, about three weeks after it: one of the latest-ripening varieties in this corpus. That slowness, combined with good winter cold hardiness, lets it hang late into the season without destructive frost risk, a necessary condition for late harvests and dessert wines.

Its vigour is medium. It is prone to grey rot, anthracnose and grape berry moths; rot in particular can cause early berry drop under certain conditions. It gives its finest versions on schist — the Mosel, the Rhine valley — and on granite in Alsace.

In the glass

The nose opens on citrus: lime, grapefruit, citrus zest, with a floral note of linden blossom. Flint, a classic mineral-smoky note in young Riesling, is especially clear on schist. In late-harvest bottlings, apricot appears, short of the most advanced overripeness.

With age, Riesling develops two markers: honey, shared with other aged whites, and above all petrol, of which it is the emblematic grape. The note comes from TDN (1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene), released gradually from precursors in the grape; bunches exposed to the sun tend to contain more of it.

On the palate, acidity is the highest in this corpus alongside Chenin Blanc: 4 to 5, without exception. Tannin is nil, body and alcohol are usually light (1 to 3), even in the richest, most residual-sugar-laden versions — it is the sugar, not the alcohol, that carries the weight there. Sweetness potential spans the whole scale, from bone dry to a great dessert wine.

Great terroirs

Alsace made it one of its seven historic varieties and one of the four allowed in Grand Cru — alone or leading the blend at Altenberg de Bergheim — giving the appellation's most taut, longest-lived dry whites. Outside France, Germany (the Mosel, the Rheingau) made it its signature grape, ranked by ripeness from Kabinett to Trockenbeerenauslese, and Austria (the Wachau) gives dry, powerful versions.

Commonly confused with

Chenin Blanc is the most natural comparison: the same high acidity, the same dry-to-sweet range. Chenin is waxier and rounder; Riesling, sharper on citrus, develops with age the petrol note for which it is the emblematic grape.

Sauvignon Blanc, this corpus's other highly aromatic white, has neither Riesling's extreme acidity nor its ageing potential: its box-hedge and blackcurrant-bud aromas read immediately, where Riesling's often only reveal themselves after years in bottle.