Hi All,
I have a strong love for Riesling that goes back to when I first got into wine via icewine. Riesling is the second most popular icewine choice available next to Vidal in the world and was my gateway to sweet German Riesling.
German Riesling itself was a revelation to me as it was a table wine that was not only acceptable as sweet but really sweet and far off the just off-dry path. Plus, it was far lower in alcohol that the commonly accepted ABV standard of 10-13.5% on average for most table wines ranging from 7 to 9.5%.
But as I noted in a recent thread, my palate is changing and I’m finding many of the German Rieslings now coming into Ontario which are now clocking in at 90-111 g/L of RS on average are actually too sweet and veering off into dessert wine range. It’s a bit shocking to me how fast it changed as two years ago when I really started to get into German Riesling, the average was about 45-50 g/L. It’s also odd because just as Germany itself is demanding more and more trocken and rejecting sweet Riesling, it’s as if the rest of the world feels the need to get even sweeter Riesling to somehow make up for this. I’m also finding the bodies way too thin now and preferring the mouthfeel that a 10% ABV or higher wine has.
This has led me to finally take the plunge and dive into other Riesling wines from around the world. Rieslings with considerably less sugar and more alcohol in wildly different styles. I have picked up Rieslings from Ontario, New Zealand, Alsace, Australia and then back to Germany after finding a Spatlese that miraculously had just 50 g/L RS and a full 10% ABV which is extremely rare for me to see.
I’ll be posting my thoughts on these different Rieslings and invite everyone else to post their thoughts on this as well. Out of loyalty, I begin my chronicles with Riesling from my own home region of Ontario, Canada.
With a large amount of limestone in the soils in Niagara and Prince Edward County along with an overall cool climate and some nifty microclimates, Ontario does a great job with Riesling. Our Riesling tends to be very high in acid, fresh and full of fruit flavor. Unfortunately, this is offset by the fact that our wine industry is just 30 years old and those Riesling vines just don’t have the age or ability to produce amazing stuff like vielle vignes from Alsace, for example.
The Rieslings I acquired were the Fielding Estate 2012 and Grange of Prince Edward Country Estate 2012 Riesling table wines. All three clock in at mininum 10% ABV and the Grange of PEC is surprisingly high at 11.7% ABV.
Rather than give specific tasting notes, here are my overall experiences. My first crack was at the Grange of PEC. Here are general observations on first taste:
- It had a light petrol nose, nowhere near as strong as on a German.
- Fruit flavor is really light, and the finish is super alcoholic, almost spirity!
- Despite a relatively high 38 g/L RS, there’s no detectable sweetness at all
At first I wasn’t impressed but then a brainstorm hit my head and I decided to cork the bottle and let it rest a day on my cool kitchen counter. Then I retasted the wine. Completely different story:
- Petrol has given way to gorgeous lemon peel and green apple aromas
- Fruit flavor is really strong now
- Alcoholic taste on the finish is gone, this is now completely integrated and has a smooth mouthfeel
- Surprisingly flinty flavors like a very well made Chablis I recently had that I posted about in my Domaine Weinbach thread
- Now I can detect some sweetness but not too much. Just enough to pull the wine into off-dry territory
- Nowhere near as ripe as a Spatlese or even some Kabinetts I’ve had for that matter
So basically I figured it out – the Riesling needed a decant first to open up! Now this is something I would never have thought of ever. Riesling never struck me before as a wine that needed a decant prior to enjoying and I’ve certainly never had to decant a Spatlese or Auslese. Yet here was ample evidence that it does benefit from one.
Then this Friday at dinner, I had the opportunity to try the Charles Baker 2012 Reisling from Niagara. This was probably, technically, the finest Ontario dry Riesling I have ever had:
- Very tart and very dry wine
- Extremely flinty and full of finesse; almost like drinking crystal itself in liquid form
- Extremely refined acid and fruit flavor
Then as a comparison the dinner party (Jay and Michael again for those who read my Weinbach thread) had the 2012 St. Urbans-Hof Bockstein Spatlese:
- Full of petrol and apple aromas in droves
- Sweet tastes of honey and green apple and lemon-lime
- Extremely rich and ripe fruit flavors
- Nowhere near the finesse of the Charles Baker
Now here’s the interesting thing – Jay and Mike have refined dry wine palates and we all very much respected the Charles Baker but agreed that we enjoyed the St. Urbans-Hof much more. It was the reason why that was interesting.
It wasn’t so much the sugar (though of course I enjoyed that) but rather the ripeness of the Spatlese we enjoyed more. It just gave the wine a much richer and more satisfying flavor.
So my general thoughts after trying these two Rieslings and comparing to the Spatlese are:
- I’m genuinely surprised how delicate Ontario Riesling wine is and how it actually needs a good decant to open up
- I’m very impressed with the expressive flintiness, high acidity and balance, and smooth mouthfeel. It does explain why our Riesling icewine is soo good now that I think about it
- I think the fruit flavors should be more ripe than they are now to stand up to the alcohol a bit better
Notice I didn’t say they need more sugar. I don’t think Ontario Riesling needs to be sweeter than it already is, just riper by letting the grapes hang just a touch longer. I definitely respect it for sure but it’s not overtaking German Spatlese and Auslese in my collection any time soon.
That said, I’m happy to add a few select bottles. The quality is definitely there even with such young vines. But I strongly feel that with some tweaks the stuff could easily rival German Spatlese in quality.
It turns out, I’m not the only one who feels that way. Vineland Estates has released a series of four Riesling wines in a line called “Expressions in D” and they are very similar to German Rieslings – left to ripen longer from some of their best vineyard plots, German style 8.5% ABV and RS levels varying between 50 - 60 g/L. I’m very curious to try these when I get out there again this upcoming summer.
For the next Riesling Chronicles, I’ll be going after some Alsace and NZ Riesling.
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