The perception that all riesling is sweet was such a novel concept to me when I started off learning more about wine.
Growing up, my parents disliked riesling and avoided it for years because they assumed that it was all dry. Only after I started getting into wine and learning more about German wines and the Pradikat system did I come to understand a big portion of rieslings had some level of RS to them. Over the years I’ve managed to introduce them to the grape and remove that stigma and slowly bringing them down the pradikat scale. First spatlese, then kabinett, and then slowly waining them onto feinherbs. They still prefer some RS in whites.
The big challenge I see with riesling is that there’s a much bigger wine education hurdle for consumers to clear in order for them to reliably seek out a style of riesling they enjoy. Riesling has so many faces, it’s tough for many consumers to reliably and consistently find the style of riesling they enjoy without having some more additional wine knowledge and background. Compared to many other varieties, I’d argue that to reliably find rieslings one enjoys, that usually requires a fair bit more knowledge of things like RS, or pradikat levels in order to find a riesling in the style they like. I think things like more consistent labelling throughout helps a bit, but even then it’s a challenge. Think of how many rieslings labelled as ‘dry’ you’ve tasted only to find some RS in there. For riesling, we’re usually talking about those things, RS, sugar, etc in much more detail. That’s a tough hurdle to clear and a lot more education that needs to happen for consumers. Not everyone is willing to put that work in.
I know little to nothing about German and Alsatian wines. But I love Oregon wines and every year I buy around two cases from Ovum, a producer who focuses almost exclusively on small vineyard Riesling and Gewurztraminer from WV and southern Oregon. They take what the vineyards and vintage give them: sometimes they are very dry, sometimes they have a bit of RS. I always find them delicious and a great buy at $20-25. But I’m just a happy go lucky consumer.
For the non wine geek, CSM, Kung fu girl, maybe Pacific Rim are Riesling in the US. For wine geeks, Germany, Alsace, maybe Finger Lakes are Riesling. West coast Riesling (and Gewurztraminer) over $6 is no man’s land.
I’m not sure if the figures are available (I might see if I can dig them out later), but I think if you went back 40 years, Riesling may have been ranked higher.
I do think that Riesling has made a bit of a comeback in Australia though, and there are a few reasons for it.
Lets start at the start first. The South Australian regions that are known for Riesling, i.e. the Clare and Eden valleys, were largely founded by German immigrants… We are talking the mid 1800s here, so there is a lot of history over which Riesling was established here.
In the 1980s and 90s there was a Chardonnay boom and that became the most widely planted white grape in Australia. I think that is still true today. By the time we got to the 2000s there was a backlash against Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc became dominant in the market as Australian winemakers tried to compete with the Kiwis. The popularity of Sauvignon blanc waned in the 2010s and it looked like Pinot Gris/Grigio was going to be the next big trend. It sort of happened but not quite so that left the door open for a bit of a Riesling comeback.
The Riesling producers here have been pretty organized. The Clare Valley Riesling producers really drove the change to screw caps as an (almost) united group in the early 2000s. Events like Riesling Down under have helped - it’s called something else in the US and Germany, but it rotates between the 3 countries. The turnout for those has been excellent. There have been other events that have championed the grape too, that have been pretty popular.
I think the emergence of other regions have helped too. Great Southern in Western Australia has been producing Riesling for a while but the consistency of vintages in Western Australia over the past 15 years has been pretty remarkable. I’d also say that in the last decade, the Canberra region and Tasmania have both become more prominent in general, and both produce high quality Riesling.
So I think there are some different factors that got Australia to where it is with Riesling.
What struggle?
Riesling is unique in being able to appear in all variances from pure trocken to really sticky
And some of the wines belong to the absolute elite in the world
That’s a true gift
Is your wine available at retail in New York. I have some “civilian” friends who like dry Riesling and I would love to try it with them. However, be forewarned. About 15 years ago at a family gathering I served three Rieslings blind to family members who are reasonably knowledgeable about wines and taste profiles - one Riesling each from California, New York and Germany. The California Riesling was scored the lowest by almost everyone, including me, but that is only one anecdote. I’m not sure that the climate works well with Riesling.
Adam - Do you know of a annual or biannual riesling conference/celebration/party that you could attend and talk to other riesling producers and find out what they have tried to get their wines to fly off the shelves?
That’s it in a nutshell. While Berserkers are interested in this topic, the other 99% of the wine buying public couldn’t care less. They’ll drink a pinot grigio or chardonnay before ever drinking any variety of riesling.
I don’t think riesling’s struggle should be only attributed to sweetness. Obviously the perception of the grape has been negatively impacted due to the ocean of low quality sweet German wine produced and marketed in the states, as well as the overall shift of wine style preference over time. But just because a Riesling is dry doesn’t automatically mean its going to be good or enjoyable, there are plenty of, uninspiring low quality dry riesling wines being produced all over the globe. The crusade against sweetness has lead many producers especially in the new world to produce these “bone dry” thin wines that taste like your chewing a vitamin c pill, lack body, and fruit concentration.
What should riesling producers do to gain more market share? Keep on promoting the wide variety of styles that the grape is capable of making. Keep promoting the classic wine regions that excel at producing high quality riesling wines, and continue getting wines in front of consumers and professionals to expand their knowledge.
Riesling being the #4 or #6 white grape consumed in America is good! It will never overtake chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, or pinot grigio since those grapes can be planted in a wider range of climates or at higher yields.
I agree with many of Hank’s points, but even more global than the sweet vs. dry debate is that riesling’s problem is education and awareness. In the second half of the 20th century, the mainstream hadn’t taken riesling seriously because much of what you saw in the US market was liebfraumilch at a time when CA chardonnay was shown to be competitive with white Burgundy. Yes there needs to be more education to show how versatile the grape is, such that it can be appealing to the dry white wine drinkers as well as make some great sweet wines. But unless it has its ‘Judgement of Paris’ moment I don’t think it’ll overtake chardonnay either (at least in the US).
CA climate is varied enough to have areas that are well suited to making great Riesling. The North Coast (Mendocino specifically) produces my favorites. I’ve had Toulouse and Bedrock recently, both exemplary. Will try Desire Lines next.
What amazes me is not only the pervasive aversion to Riesling but the intensity of it. I have a client for whom I select wines several times per year. We focus on one producer per order with our winery direct shipping program. She approved every invoice I sent her and most included wines of which she was unfamiliar.
I just sent her a list for wines from a new producer for us from the Langhe. It included Barolo, Barbera, Langhe Nebbiolo and a Rosato. She prefers to keep the pricing reasonable, so instead of adding Cru Barolo, I included their 2 Rieslings (one is single vineyard). While they won’t worry any top German or Alsatian producers, I think they are quite good at least and very varietally true.
She responded by asking if I could replace them. I told her that would mean raising the price considerably or doing multiple bottles of something. I assured her they are completely dry😉
She apologized for the resistance, said she’s heard good things about Riesling, is open to exploring it - but leave them out and give her extra Rosato.
This program is designed to help clients get introduced to new producers and wines. In most cases, they get one bottle of each wine. Not much risk. Yet even so, she could not bring herself to buy Riesling. Not really. I sell plenty of things that are tough slogs. As mentioned above, if you can get them to taste, there’s hope
Let’s not forget to always look on the bright side of life (as consumers; if I were a producer like Adam, I might feel differently). This struggle means accessibility. There are very few dry Riesling above $100 even in the U.S. after import costs. Though the higher end of the higher end of the prädikat scale can get expensive, there really isn’t anyone other than Egon Müller making three-digit Kabinett or Spätlese, either.
If you consider Riesling as the contender to chardonnay for making the world’s “best” white wine, and you look at the prices White Burgundy, you might be ok with Riesling struggling a bit for recognition.
Adam - I will come back to you with a more thoughtfully composed comment. As someone who just started a curated German wine service that has sold out every offer despite only starting the company last August and who is forced to chase around sold out German Rieslings around the globe for my person collection I would suggest that there is very high demand for Riesling.
I will 110% agree Riesling is HARD to sell for many reasons that I have thought about endlessly but it will take me more time than I have to explain here because I just spent two hours sorting out the 50 people on the waitlist for Rieslingstudy 005!
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What struggle?
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Not really. I sell plenty of things that are tough slogs. As mentioned above, if you can get them to taste, there’s hope