Riesling Wine Guide

Hi, I'm Eric Taylor from Bottles Fine Wine in Providence, Rhode Island, and today I'm talking about one of my favorite wines in the entire world, Riesling. I recommend Riesling all the time to people, and many times people say, ah, Riesling, it's so sweet. I don't like it. I'm here to tell you that Rieslings are not always sweet. Now, while there are many, many Rieslings in the world that are of a very sweet style, the best Rieslings and the Rieslings that I think you would like the best are really, really dry wines. Rieslings come from all over the world, and they grow best in cool climate areas, places like Oregon and Austria, Germany, Alsace, New Zealand. The key is cool climates for acid production, and I'll talk more about that in a few minutes. Typical flavors of Riesling include peaches, nectarines, melons, honeysuckles. Oftentimes Rieslings will have secondary flavors of things like beeswax or a little bit of petrol, which sounds crazy, but is actually very delicious, and wet stone. So to talk a little bit more about Rieslings and specific Rieslings, let's go over to the Riesling Laydown Rack here in the store. So what makes Rieslings so delicious? And I think the key is acid. Now acid sounds like a scary term, but some of the most refreshing drinks we enjoy are full of acid, things like lemonade or Coca-Cola or orange juice. Riesling is a very special grape because not only does it have the peak of summer stone fruit flavors like peaches and nectarines, but it also is a grape that has a high amount of acid. So when it's well made, when those ripe fruit flavors combine with a high amount of acid something very, very special happens in your mouth. And the best Rieslings have that balance, that combination of fruitiness and acidity. Some of my favorite Rieslings over here are the Kung Fu Girl Riesling from Washington State, dry style but full of honeysuckle and peaches. Another favorite of mine is Elk Cove Riesling from Oregon, bone dry, bracing acidity, so delicious, very, very refreshing. Now a question that I get a lot is how can you tell if a Riesling is going to be sweet or it's going to be dry? One of the keys is the alcohol content of the Riesling. The higher the alcohol, the drier the Riesling is going to be. The lower the alcohol, the more sweet the Riesling is going to be. So if you're ever in question, pick up a bottle and look for the alcohol level. Anything 12% or above is going to be a very dry Riesling. Anything below 12% is going to be a little bit sweeter. And the lower it gets from 12% down to 8% or so, the sweeter the Riesling is going to be. Another way to tell if a Riesling is going to be sweet or not is a lot of times, winemakers are starting to put Sweet-O-Meters on the back of their bottles with all the different levels of sweetness on the bottle and with a little arrow pointing to the particular dryness or sweetness of that particular bottling. What kind of food goes with Riesling? Personally, I'd eat anything with Riesling. But for a little bit more information, let's go to Birch here in Providence and talk to chef-owner Ben Supel to see what he has to say about it. So I'm proud to be here with Ben Supel, owner-chef of Birch Restaurant on Washington Street to talk a little bit more about Riesling and pairing food with Riesling. So thanks for joining us in the video. We're glad to have you. Ben, can you talk a little bit about why you like Riesling as a chef, as a human, as a wine drinker? Well, as a chef, it's just something that brightens the palate. It doesn't try to hit you over the head with anything. It's got layers. It's clean. It's acidic. And especially with our palates and the food we do, our food lends itself to more herbs, more vegetables, more clean flavors. And there's cleaner wine than Riesling I haven't found yet. So what are some specific dishes that you have on your menu now that you think make a really good pairing with Riesling? Well, specifically, there's a dish that we have on our menu that's a horse and carrot dish with grilled clams, seeds, and yarrow. And that is a dish that's a very clean, vegetable dish. A lot of our dishes on the menu right now are a lot of seafood and vegetables. Our seasons dictate that in New England, and especially Rhode Island, so does the sea. So we get whatever that has to offer. It's great to have people try it and see that Riesling isn't your super sweet wine that you're used to having. It's this thing that can just be like, oh my goodness, it's dry. This is like nothing I've ever had before. It's not oaky. It's not oxidized. It's not buttery. It's just clean. It's just beautiful and does really, really well with food and by itself. Ben, thank you so much for talking with us. I really appreciate it.