Everyday Dining With Wine 125 Wonderful Recipes to Match and Enjoy with Wine

chapter one RIESLING AND THE AROMATIC WHITES Riesling Rundown Home regions Germany and Alsace, France Other great Riesling sources Austria, New Zealand, Australia, United States (Washington State, California, New York) Style Light- to medium-bodied; elegant Flavor Tangy-crisp like apples to juicy- mouthwatering like peaches and melons What is Riesling? As I've said to my culinary students, it's "the Riesling for living!" A fun pun, but in my book it's not a joke. I am passionate about this grape, for the simple reason that every time I pour one, it enchants me. The flavors and scents are so pure, so vibrant, and so thrilling that I'm drawn back to the glass again and again for more of that perfume. Sampled alone, Riesling's aromatic attributes certainly demand attention. But with food it is not a show-off. Like a perfect dance partner, it swirls and sashays lithely and elegantly across the table with virtually any dish. To put it plainly, I've never found a food that doesn't pair well with Riesling. Yet, among average consumers, Riesling is the wallflower of wines, rarely getting a chance to show her charms. I think Liebfraumilch, the simple, sweet stuff we all discovered in the 1970s, is the reason. People see the traditional long, fluted bottle shape and think "sweet" and "not for me." Although Rieslings are bottled in the same distinctive container, the only other thing they share in common with Liebfraumilch is an original home base, Germany. To explore the wonderful world of Riesling, that's the place to start. German Wine Labels' "New Look" You might say the wallflower has had a makeover. Many of the top German wine estates have radically simplified their labeling, with easier-to-read lettering and simpler designs. Some of the top wineries have begun to simply label their wines as "Estate," meaning grown in the winery's own vineyards. Leaving off the long vineyard names or shrinking them to a less prominent position helps the buyer get to the most important quality and style indicators--the producer and the ripeness level. German Riesling Basics So you thought Germany was only tops at cars and beer? German Rieslings are awesome. Admittedly, they can also be confusing, because the labels can sometimes seem engineered with as much technical detail and precision as a Porsche. But all that detail actually slows many wine lovers down. The hard-to-read script and multisyllabic names, while traditional, can make it hard for non-German speakers to figure out what style of Riesling is in the bottle. That style is dependent on the ripeness of the grapes at harvest. The riper the grapes, the fuller the body, and the richer the wine. Now, the most important point. That richness can come in two forms: Fruitiness or sweetness, or both. Here's the distinction: Fruitiness means the flavor and sweetness of fresh fruit, balanced by vibrant acidity; sweetness means the taste of fruit with sugar added. Think of the difference between a ripe apple (which is fruity-sweet) versus apple pie filling (which is sugary-sweet). The fruity wines are fabulous partners for savory food. The sweet ones are great with dessert, as dessert, or with cheeses and pates. Here are the different German ripeness levels from least to most ripe, and the fruitiness or sweetness associated with each: Kabinett Fruity Light-bodied Spatlese Fruity Light- to medium-bodied Auslese Slightly sweet Light- to medium-bodied Beerenauslese Very sweet Medium-bodied and luscious Trockenbeerenauslese Very Sweet Medium-bodied and syrupy The Fruit Flavor of Riesling Of course, any exploration of the flavors in wine starts with fruit. Riesling isImmer, Andrea is the author of 'Everyday Dining With Wine 125 Wonderful Recipes to Match and Enjoy with Wine', published 2004 under ISBN 9780767916813 and ISBN 0767916816.