World's Most Underrated Wine: 10 Top Riesling Picks!

Riesling is unquestionably one of the truly elite wines, and yet it also remains one of the most misunderstood and undervalued wines in the entire world. In addition to its favorable pricing, what I love about Riesling is its precision, transparency to terroir, and wide variety of expressions. Few grapes can move so effortlessly, from bone-dry, mineral-driven expressions, to off-dry styles with electric tension, to delicate cabinets, all the way to deeply complex sweet wines. High acidity, aromatic intensity, and the ability to age and evolve effortlessly for decades make Riesling something that should be a staple in every diverse wine collection. My favorite sources for elite Riesling include Germany, Baja Austria, Alsace France, and Claire in Eden Valleys in Australia. In this video, I'm going to share some of my favorite Rieslings that I've enjoyed for the past year or so. These Rieslings all come from some of the favorite regions that I just identified, and they're also at a wide variety of price points, with some selling for as little as $20 to $25 per bottle. If you have any favorite Rieslings, please let us know in the comments below. While German Riesling justifiably gets a lot of attention, I'm also a big fan of Austrian Riesling, and my favorites come from the Wachau region. One of the top winemakers in the Wachau is Rudi Pieckler. Better still, 2023 was an absolutely phenomenal vintage in Austria, so the next top wine for $60 a bottle is the 2023 Rudi Pieckler Kirschweg Smaragd Riesling. As with most Austrian Riesling, this wine is bone dry. This is a mineral-driven wine that features flavors and There's mouthwatering acidity and an intriguing tension. This is absolutely a wine that you'll want to add to your collection. You can enjoy it when it's young, but it does improve and gain some additional complexity with additional bottle age as well. There were definitely some impressive white wines at the James Suckling event as well, and day two started with a dynamic duo of Rieslings, one from Alsace and another from Germany. The Alsace wine came from family Eugel. They had an impressive Gewürztraminer, but the Riesling that they poured was definitely one of the standouts of the entire evening. Eugel was pouring a Grand Cru Riesling from the 2015 vintage. This is their flagship dry white wine, and it was showing extremely well on this night. Much better than it was a couple years ago, so it's definitely gaining some additional complexity with age. This wine featured layers and layers of flavor and an incredibly long finish. There was ample acidity and it was very well balanced. This is a wine that sells for right around $100 per bottle. Immediately after tasting this wine, I went to the Schloss Johannesburg table and tried an impressive Riesling from them as well. This was the 2021 Silverlot GG. This wine is from the Rheingau, and it's a little bit more intense and powerful than the Alsace expression was. There was also a higher level of acidity as well. This was the perfect way to start the second day of tasting. Two distinct yet extremely impressive expressions of Riesling. If anyone watching this video still believes that all Rieslings are sweet, that is not the case at all, and there's many outstanding examples of Riesling that are completely dry, such as this next top wine for $25 a bottle. This is the 2023 Pusey Vale 1961 Block Riesling, which was well received by several major critics. As the name suggests, the fruit for this wine comes from a special parcel of old vines that was planted back in 1961, which is extremely old for Australian Riesling. This wine comes from Australia's Eden Valley, which is a cooler climate wine region that's known for the of world-class Riesling. Better still, Pusey Vale is one of the most historic high-quality producers from Eden Valley. This wine is an extraordinary value at around $25 per bottle. It's a mineral-driven wine that has bracing acidity and layered citrus flavors. When it's young, this is a wine that can be a little bit restrained, but I definitely recommend that you buy this wine in quantity and try to put away as many bottles as you can for an extended period of time. Last summer, I had the opportunity to try a number of different expressions of aged Riesling from Australia, and I was absolutely blown away. These wines gain tremendous complexity and become truly special with 10 to 15 years of additional age. My new book, Napa Valley Decoded, is already a number one bestseller and the top new release in wine. This is the book that I wish I had when first got into Napa Valley many years ago. This book has quickly become a trusted resource for collectors, enthusiasts, and wine professionals. Whether you drink Napa Valley wines, are studying for a certification exam, or are visiting Napa Valley, this book will be an invaluable resource. To learn more, please be sure to check out the link in the description below. Next up is a wine that's underrated for two different reasons. First, it's from Alsace. Second, it's a Riesling. Alsace Riesling can be world-class, and this wine is certainly a good example of that. It comes from one of the top producers in the world, Sien Umbrescht. This is a wine that's made with 100% estate fruit, but the estate fruit is fruit that does not make it into their top single vineyard bottlings. Sien Umbrescht is a big proponent of sustainable farming, and this fruit is all biodynamically grown. This is the 2023 Sien Umbrescht Riesling Roche Calcaire. This is a wine that's bone dry with racy acidity. Flavors and aromas include mixed citrus, whetstone, and gunflint. This wine has a long life ahead of it and is extremely age-worthy. This is an excellent choice if you'd like to get a feel for the Sien Umbrescht wines before paying up for some of their Grand Crus. When I'm buying wines from my personal collection, in addition to looking for wines from strong vintages in certain regions, I also place great weight on the reputation and quality of the producer. And of course, Donhoff is a legendary producer from the Nahe region in Germany, and certainly one that's a go-to for me personally. Namely the 2023 Mein Gut Donhoff Niederhauser Clam Cabinet Riesling, which sells for an incredibly reasonable $30 per bottle, yet received tremendous critical acclaim. 2023 was an exceptionally strong vintage generally in Germany, particularly for Riesling. The vineyards that produce the fruit for this wine have southeast- facing exposure, so the fruit tends to get quite ripe, and as such there's a little bit of a darker profile for this wine. You can expect flavors and aromas of peach and lemon, with incredibly abundant acidity and a zesty, refreshing finish. Really a very enjoyable wine, and an exceptional value for less than $30 per bottle. Next up is another extremely enjoyable wine from a historic producer that's been around for more than 300 years, and has been owned and operated by more than 13 generations of the same family. Despite the fact that this high-quality producer makes one of the very best white wines in the entire world, they also have an extremely enjoyable white wine that's a consistent performer year in and year out, but which sells for as little as $20 per bottle in the United States, and undoubtedly less than that in the EU. So the next top wine is the 2022 Trimbach Riesling, which comes from Alsace, France. Alsace is a very underrated region generally, in my opinion, and it offers lots of compelling quality at a variety of price points. But this is definitely one of my favorite values at $20 to $25 or so. This is a wine that's available pretty much worldwide, and you can definitely find it in most wine stores, as well as on many restaurant lists. It makes a perfect pairing for starters, as well as seafood and white meat. While many people complain that they don't like Riesling because they don't like sweet wines, this wine is bone dry. It has an alcohol by volume of around 12.8%, so it is a little bit more on the powerful side for a Riesling, but it's also extremely well-balanced, and it has ample acidity and freshness as well. This is a mineral-driven wine with flavors and aromas of lemon, pear, apple, and citrus. 2023 was a strong vintage in Germany, and particularly so in Falz, and this next wine comes from one of my favorite producers of German Riesling. This is the 2023 Müller-Kotheuer Herrenleiten Riesling Trocken. Trocken means dry, but of course under German law there's a precise definition. Typically it means less than 9 grams per liter of residual sugar. The fruit for this wine from the Herrenleiten vineyard comes from organically grown grapes. This is a mineral-driven wine with flavors and aromas that include Asian pear, peach, grapefruit, and white flowers. It has impressive acidity and a long, complex finish. It's charming when young, but certainly has the capacity to age for 10 years or more as well. Recently I've had some viewers ask me about wines that make excellent food pairings, so this next top wine for $40 per bottle is one of the most versatile wines to pair with food that I know. This is a wine that has low alcohol by volume and high acidity. It also has a little bit of residual sugar that makes it a good companion for even spicy cuisine like Thai, Indian, or Mexican. It also goes incredibly well with delicate foods like sushi and sashimi. So the next top wine for $40 a bottle is the 2023 Zillikin Sauberger Rausch Cabinet Riesling. This wine features 8% alcohol by volume and it has around 50 grams of residual sugar. So there is a little bit of residual sugar, but it is balanced by abundant acidity as well. This is a wine that received significant critical acclaim and it features flavors and aromas of peach, lemon, tea, and spice with impressive intensity and a long finish. Along with Eden Valley, Clare Valley is a fantastic source for high quality Riesling in Australia. This is a wine that comes from certified organic fruit from a single vineyard that is planted at around 465 meters above sea level. The vines average around 24 years of age. This is the 2024 Adelina Wines Polish Hill River Smith Riesling. And make sure you get the Smith bottling as the Smith single vineyard wine is a significant step up from their standard Polish Hill River Riesling. This wine features flavors and aromas of grapefruit, lemon, lime, ginger, flint, and sea spray. It has impressive concentration, abundant acidity, and a long finish. It comes in at 12.3% alcohol by volume. About a year and a half ago, I visited Australia for the first time. While I was there, I had some amazing wine experiences in several different outstanding Australian wine regions that I think don't get the attention that they deserve. If you'd like to learn more about that visit and the wines that I recommend from those regions, please be sure to watch this video that's linked above.