ONE

The Riesling Predicament

very very good wine is a trifecta of gated by human intervention. Varieties have E variety, place, and style. Variety, of course, been with us more or less as long as people refers to the wine’s varietal composition. Place have made wine and cultivated grapes, but they denotes the wine’s geographic origin. And style were not an object of systematic attention or a is shorthand for most other factors, such as key element in wine nomenclature until fairly whether the wine was made still or sparkling, recently. Familiar as varietal names now appear heady or light, sweet or dry. These three param- to wine consumers around the world, ranging eters are kaleidoscopically interwoven and sub- through the alphabet from Albariño to Zinfan- tly interdependent, but in the end they all deter- del, most varieties were not segregated in vine- mine a wine’s individual properties—from yards, made monovarietally, or featured on color, strength, structure, taste, and smell to wine labels until the past 150 or so years. And reputation, cost, price, and suitability. the science that has finally begun to make The pages that follow discuss one wine sense of the large universe of varieties, and to grape variety, Riesling, made as monovarietal reveal parental and sibling relationships among wine, grown in dozens of different sites across them, developed only in the 1990s. Today at the Northern Hemisphere, and vinified so that least 1,400 wine grape varieties are known to the finished wine is dry. Before we begin this be present in the world’s commercial vineyards, exploration of specifics, a bit more attention to and each has been genetically fingerprinted the wine’s background is appropriate. and is distinguishable from all others. While this number seems enormous at first blush, the count would be considerably higher if varieties VARIETY grown noncommercially or experimentally In the universe of wine grapes, varieties are in were added in, along with varieties present only fact cultivars—natural seedling progeny of in conservatory collections or known to have cross-pollinated parent vines chosen and propa- existed in the past but not to have survived.

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 7 27/07/15 4:58 PM And this figure does not include the varieties— lages, towns, administrative districts, or ports not cultivars—that existed only for the lifetime of embarkation. In this context, no feature of of a single vine plant that was never chosen or the land where grapes are farmed is, or ever propagated by a curious farmer. was, prima facie irrelevant to the wine pro- On the other hand, the number of varieties duced. Certainly, a site’s latitude and climate that have attracted widespread, significant, and are relevant, as well as its elevation, orientation, sustained interest from winegrowers and there- aspect, proximities, and exposures; the physical fore are grown today in many corners of the and chemical properties of its dirt and even the global vineyard—varieties generally known as microflora in it; and the uses imposed on classic, major, or international—amount to only neighboring land. As the legendary English a few dozen. This list, largely a product of Euro- wine writer Hugh Johnson is supposed to have pean immigration to the New World in the 19th summarized it, “In the case of wine, where it century, expands from time to time as Euro- comes from is the whole point” (quoted in Blan- pean varieties of hitherto only local interest are ning 2009). discovered by New World vintners and trans- In recent decades, much of the conversation planted. Consider the sagas of Vermentino and about place and wine has invoked the French Grüner Veltliner, for example, barely known word terroir. Print appearances of the word are 20 years ago outside their habitats around now so ubiquitous that it is rarely italicized in the Tyrrhenian Sea and in Austria, respectively, English; whole books have been written about but now looking suspiciously international. But terroir by geologists and plant scientists, and no the converse trend is stronger: already-domi- issue of any wine magazine, in any European nant varieties such as Chardonnay are more language, is terroir-free. Never mind that the widely planted everywhere, largely because word itself, in anything approximating its cur- nothing succeeds like success and thus these rent meaning, is younger than the Industrial varieties make eminent economic sense. Mean- Revolution and has been used to denote the while, less-visible varieties are abandoned and “somewhereness” of individual wines for barely disappear. a century. Individual commentators and wine- growers have permitted themselves personal and sometimes idiosyncratic redefinitions of PLACE the word. Grosso modo, terroir is modern short- If our contemporary preoccupation with grape hand for the imprint of site-specific properties varieties, our growing knowledge of varieties on individual wines. The word has evolved into and their relationships, and our increasing reli- an umbrella term that subsumes everything ance on varietal names for the taxonomies of mysterious about the properties of wine, and it wine have made variety seem to be the primary is now a touchstone for everyone who contends, element in the trifecta of excellent wine, place as many do, that all very good wine is made in deserves at least as much attention, and argua- the vineyard, not in the cellar. bly more. Until the past century, wine taxono- mies were overwhelmingly geographical, not STYLE varietal, because as early as Roman times, we had recognized that regions and sites differ Style, the third part of the trifecta, is less famil- from one another, even if our understanding of iar to wine consumers than variety or terroir. It the science of differences was imperfect. The is also more troubled territory, but no less names of wines were the names of vineyards or important for its handicaps. It has recently vineyard blocks, themselves often derived from attracted attention in spite of itself as ultraripe physical, cultural, or ecological features of the flavors and concomitant increases in alcohol landscape or chose as references to nearby vil- content, especially in New World red wines,

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 8 27/07/15 4:58 PM have provoked pushback from many sommel- pressing. Whether botrytis is present, and iers and some wine writers, and as barrel-fer- whether botrytis-affected clusters are kept sep- mented Chardonnays, redolent of oak, butter, arate from the rest. Whether the juice is clari- and vanilla and kissed with residual sweetness, fied before fermentation or afterward, or both. have become so ubiquitous that many consum- Whether the fermentation environment is ers erroneously think of these attributes as heated, chilled, or otherwise modified. How properties of the grape variety itself. The push- much contact is permitted between juice and back is illustrated by the creation, in 2011, of an skins and between new wine and lees. Whether organization called In Pursuit of Balance, the fermentation is deliberately interrupted, which focuses on encouraging “balance” in left to itself, or encouraged to consume all avail- California winemaking, especially as it affects able sugar. Whether anything is added to the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and by the publica- wine, briefly or permanently, to flavor it, alter tion of a book by San Francisco Chronicle wine its natural chemistry, deactivate bacteria, or editor Jon Bonné celebrating winemakers “who prevent secondary fermentation. And, in the are “rewriting the rules of contemporary wine- time since distillation was “invented,” whether making by picking grapes earlier and seeking the wine is fortified, or, in very recent years, to reduce alcoholic strength” (Bonné 2013). whether some of the alcohol produced by fer- Although the object of attention in both cases is mentation was removed. Style-based choices wine style, the s-word itself is barely mentioned have been part and parcel of viniculture at least in language that concentrates instead on the since classical antiquity, ceaselessly reflecting “promotion of varietal characteristics” and on the status of wine among other drinks, the ebb varieties as “vehicles for the expression of ter- and flow of consumer tastes, and the determi- roir,” per In Pursuit of Balance’s website. Win- native effect of consumer preferences and valu- emakers themselves seem uncomfortable with ations on markets. the idea that style is an essential parameter of wine, endlessly repeating the catechism that RIESLING very good wine “makes itself” as long as the grapes have been properly grown. In these Vintners and wine writers widely agree that pages, I argue the converse: style is everything Riesling, the object of attention in these pages, about wine that is neither terroir (mediated is an important international variety. It occu- through viticulture) nor variety, and it is the pies a total of more than 50,000 hectares world- outcome of a long list of winemaking choices. wide, overwhelmingly in the Northern Hemi- Some relationship always exists, of course, both sphere, but it is also solidly anchored in the logically and empirically, between the expres- antipodes. It is grown on every wine-producing sion of place and the way a wine is made; win- continent, in at least a dozen European coun- emaking is critical to very good wines, and it is tries, and in no fewer than nine American a conscious, thoughtful, and usually beneficial states and three Canadian provinces. While symbiosis with raw material. Nevertheless, Chardonnay, a variety that has become almost style is different from both variety and terroir. synonymous with white wine in much of the Style begins with the protocol that governs wine-drinking world, beats Riesling in terms of the harvest. This includes such factors as surface planted almost four to one, Riesling is whether the vineyard is picked in a single pass, almost as widespread as Pinot Gris and more for example, or several times to segregate fruit than three times as widely planted as Chenin of different maturities; how mature the grapes Blanc. are when they are picked; and whether grape Its desirable varietal properties, wherever it clusters are pressed directly, partially crushed, grows, include late budding and late ripening, destemmed, or even partially dried before high tolerance for cold winters, considerable

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 9 27/07/15 4:58 PM drought resistance, good concentration, truth certain varieties, has been studied for more to variety even at relatively high yields, high than half a century, especially in the New adaptability to a wide range of mesoclimates World, where the earliest plantings of wine and soil types, a large and brilliant flavor pal- grapes often were an experimental jumble. The ette, and wines that age astonishingly well. work done beginning in the 1940s at the Uni- David Schildknecht, the eminent American versity of California, Davis, by Maynard Amer- wine writer, summarizing Riesling for the ine and A. J. Winkler on “heat summation” Internationales Riesling Symposium held at (measured in degree-days) and on regions then Eltville, in the German Rheingau, in 2010, classified by heat summation is well known called attention to Riesling’s “fragrance, and has been widely used to align macrocli- finesse, freshness, elegance, and reflection of mates with appropriate varieties. Their essen- vintage and terroir.” tial insight—that temperature alone controls Riesling underwent a period of quantitative the botanical process that ripens wine grapes— decline during the middle of the 20th century has been confirmed by subsequent research owing to the passing infatuation with the high- and experience and is summarized in a book by yield variety Müller-Thurgau—a Riesling cross the insightful Australian agricultural scientist with an earlier cross of uncertain parentage John Gladstones (Gladstones 2011). Yet gener- called Madeleine Royale—in cool-climate parts ally, viticulturists now focus less on the mini- of Europe and losses to the Chardonnay tsu- mum heat accumulation necessary to ripen any nami in Australia, California, and parts of individual variety, primarily because most wine South America. But it has been on the rebound regions now accumulate more heat than they since the 1990s: its planted surface increased did a generation ago, making excess heat more by 14 percent in Germany between 1985 and problematic than heat deficit. As vine-trellising 2012 and by 16 percent in Austria between systems have also changed, the microcondi- 1999 and 2009; doubled in California between tions surrounding grape clusters have replaced 2004 and 2011; and surged 60 percent in macroclimatic air temperature as an object of Washington State between 1997 and 2006. In attention, drawing interest to berries’ flesh or the United States, the market for Riesling- juice temperature and therefore also to factors based wines has been impressively strong, such as clusters’ exposure to direct or dappled although only as compared to their earlier, very sunlight, the effect of topsoil color on the wave- weak sales. Point-of-sale data, primarily from length of light reflected from the ground, and large supermarkets, shows a 54 percent on enzymatic responses to specific light fre- increase in Riesling sales between 2005 and quencies. A generation ago, ripening itself was 2007, which established Riesling as the fastest- construed as a single biochemical process growing varietal wine in American markets measured by sugar accumulation. Now viticul- between 2006 and 2011, with increased sales at turists, winemakers, wine writers, and even all price points. Wine imports to the States consumers talk about ripening as multiple con- from Germany also nearly tripled between current, but not entirely simultaneous, proc- 1999 and 2007, rising from 1.2 to 3.2 million esses, and they routinely distinguish so-called cases, of which Riesling was a substantial flavor or physiological ripening from sugar rip- share. As early as 1990, Washington surpassed ening. Much of the recent professional litera- California as the area of greatest Riesling pro- ture relevant to Riesling was summarized by duction in the States, and it is now home to the Hans Reiner Schultz, the president of Geisen- world’s largest Riesling producer, the formida- heim University, in his presentation to the 2014 ble Chateau Ste. Michelle. Internationales Riesling Symposium: he said The suitability of certain varieties to certain that Riesling needs “cool to intermediate cli- geographic locations, and of certain locations to mates to ripen its crop properly,” but that it may

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 10 27/07/15 4:58 PM tolerate high maxima, albeit with attendant sty- wine of “table” strength and commands the listic differences, if the maxima are offset highest prices for such wines worldwide, Ries- by “cofactors in quality formation” such as diur- ling is not far behind, except as to price. The nal temperature variation, sunshine hours, or late Steve Pitcher (1945–2012), a San Fran- water availability. And, although the climatic cisco–based wine writer with a special affec- differences among Riesling-friendly areas are tion for German wines, explicitly compared “relatively large,” the impact of such differences Riesling to White Burgundy in 1997, calling it on wine styles are quite imperfectly understood “qualitatively equivalent” (Pitcher 1997). A (Schultz 2014). 2006 book by a fellow San Franciscan, Master For all its plasticity, however, Riesling is Sommelier Evan Goldstein, called special atten- scarcely insensitive to environments. On the tion to Riesling’s “balanced acidity” and its contrary, it is widely appreciated for its great “capacity to explode on the palate with a bevy of transparency to site, a property it appears to flavors that scream fruit . . . while being firmly share especially with Pinot Noir. In other underscored by slatey and petrol-like earth words, the expression of Riesling varies quite notes” (Goldstein 2006). For Jancis Robinson, perceptibly from one vineyard location to the MW, Riesling is “one of the most magnificent next, responding to very subtle differences in varieties in the world and the source of the best meso- and microclimate, altitude, aspect, slope, white wines that exist”; for Michel Bettane, the proximity to water, air circulation, and many dean of French wine writers, it is simply “the properties of soil. Key soil properties are not noblest of the white varieties,” Chardonnay limited to the usual suspects, vigor and water apparently not excepted (Robinson XXXX; Bet- retention, but also include porosity, granularity, tane XXXX). depth, capacity for heat retention, color, and The consensus about Riesling begins to chemical composition. If the whys and where- crumble, however, when the focus turns from fores of terroir are still very imperfectly under- variety and terroir to style. Here Riesling’s per- stood, empirical differences among sites are sona is almost unique among wine grape varie- still clearly evident: dark, slate-based soils are ties, though it shares some properties with warmer at midday than loess or limestone, has- Chenin Blanc, another international white vari- tening ripening, but the wavelength of reflected ety that originated at high latitudes. Riesling’s light affects the activity of enzymes in grapes, many styles differ primarily in their levels of which respond to the ratio of red to far-red light. residual sweetness, although other parameters, Thus reddish surface soils, usually red because notably alcoholic strength, are also important. iron oxides are abundant, tend to correlate with The differences in residual sweetness span vir- faster sugar accumulation—helpful in cooler tually the entire range of possible sweetness in climates but not in warmer spots—and with wine, from dry-as-a-wine-can-be-fermented to increased content of anthocyanins in grape sweet-as-a-wine-can-be-made-naturally, which skins. The latter is not hugely important for translates analytically as anything from less Riesling but could be important for a red vari- than 3 grams per liter (g/L) of unfermented ety such as Pinot Noir. sugar to more than 300 g/L, a differential that Riesling, as a variety and as a vehicle for the spans a mind-boggling two orders of magni- expression of terroir, is almost universally tude. At the low end, the wine is lean, brilliant, exalted by wine professionals. David Schild- and even electric, worthy of raw oysters; at the knecht’s summary, quoted above, is comple- high end of the scale are Rieslings of luscious mented by the general critical opinion that, if sweetness that are often described poetically Chardonnay made from vines in Corton-Char- and are usually best enjoyed in lieu of dessert. lemagne, Montrachet, or Valmur in Chablis Between these extremes is a virtually infinite constitutes the gold standard for great white range of wines whose sweetness ranges from

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 11 27/07/15 4:58 PM barely perceptible to dominant. When the wine since the 11th century. By the end of the 19th has been made from grapes grown in very cool century, and probably earlier, the dominant sites, often at especially high latitudes, where it Riesling style—albeit one among several—was barely ripens, the middle registers of sweetness an occasionally dry but typically off-dry wine, can be associated with alcoholic strength not fermented until the fermentation stopped natu- much greater than that of most lager and rally, almost always with concurrent malolactic Christmas ale. From warmer sites, Rieslings conversion. It was held in large casks for several typically are stronger, hovering between 12 and years before it was sold, and it was racked mul- 14 percent alcohol unless winemaking choices tiple times. It was not bottled until three to five have intervened. (Note: This book expresses years after the vintage (if it was bottled at all; alcohol percentage with the degree symbol: most was sold in barrels or kegs). This was the e.g., 14°.) This picture is prima facie difficult to style most associated in most markets with describe, and the array of Riesling expressions German white wines at the end of the 19th and confounds most attempts at taxonomy. English the beginning of the 20th centuries, when terminology for wines that are neither dry nor these were Europe’s most respected light and lusciously sweet—off-dry, medium-dry, and elegant white wines. They were praised espe- semisweet, for example—are typically inade- cially for being made “naturally,” without reli- quate, while the German words lieblich and fein- ance on dried berries, addition of sugar before herb, the first haplessly rendered in English as or after fermentation, dilution with water, or “fruity” and the second generally left untrans- fortification with brandy, unlike most Euro- lated, are not much better. Other German pean white wines and many red wines at the terms properly associated only with the poten- time. Between the 1930s and the 1970s, this tial alcohol of grape juice before it is fer- style virtually disappeared from the Rhine mented—Kabinett, Spätlese, and Auslese—are Basin, the victim of a political history that dis- sometimes also used to describe styles of Ries- rupted traditional markets for German wines, ling, but they correlate imperfectly. the renewed taste for sweeter wines, the advent To further complicate the picture, Riesling of cellar technology that enabled mass produc- (like Chenin Blanc) is a so-called high-acid vari- tion of stable wines with an infinite range of ety, meaning that the grape retains more acid sweetness, and pressures to make German viti- than most varieties when it is physiologically culture efficient and successful, along with the ripe. Because most grape acid is stable, it rest of its agriculture and the balance of its remains in the finished wine. While acid does economy, beginning in the 1950s. The wine not react with unfermented sugar, it does offset styles birthed in this period, although they the sensory perception of sugar, and vice versa. reflected sweeter styles that had coexisted with More acid makes the same sugar content taste dominant naturally off-dry and long-élevage less sweet, and vice versa, all other things being wines for several centuries, were essentially equal. Independent of other variables, higher new. (Élevage denotes the time that a new wine alcohol usually gives an impression of sweet- spends in tanks between fermentation and bot- ness by itself or by enhancing the impression of tling.) These wines dominated the German sweetness that derives from sugar alone. wine scene and represented German wine Multiple styles of Riesling have been made exports to all markets for a generation, until in the Rhine Basin for as long as Riesling has another sea change washed across postwar been made into monovarietal wine, and multi- Germany, birthing dry German Riesling as we ple styles of blended white wine, dependent on know it today. combinations of Elbling, Gouais, Savagnin, This is the wine now legally known as Orléans, Muscat, Silvaner, and Riesling have trocken, fermented to fewer than 4 g/L of resid- been made there for much longer—at least ual sugar regardless of acid content, or to fewer

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 12 27/07/15 4:58 PM BOX 1 HOW IS “DRY” DEFINED?

In wine, sweetness is determined by the pres- law, more stringent definitions of dryness, as ence of some amount of sugar. Dryness is the Austria did until it joined the European Union in absence of sugar. In theory, a completely dry 1995. Both the 4-g/L ceiling and the 9-g/L excep- wine should contain no sugar at all, but some tion were supposedly based on the opinion of sugars are unfermentable, some yeast perish in expert OIV committees, filtered upward in the low-sugar environments, and the human palate OIV and thence to the European Commission, cannot perceive sugar in very low concentra- but neither the OIV nor the Spokesperson’s tions. Thus, in practice, wines are generally con- Office of the European Commission has been sidered dry if they contain less than 3 or 4 g/L of able to explain how either parameter was decided sugar. However, sensory perception of sweet- upon. Scientists outside both organizations say ness is substantially affected by the amount of they do not believe that the present provisions acid that coexists with sugar in the wine. Within have any specific basis in sensory science. certain thresholds, more acid makes the same Outside the European Community, for better amount of sugar taste less sweet. The sugar-ver- or worse, no relevant definitions for dryness in sus-acid parameter makes little difference when wine exist. In the Unites States, before Prohibi- total acidity in the wine is low, but it can be tion, the term dry referred to unfortified wine important when acidity is high, as often happens under 14° while sweet denoted any wine richer with naturally high-acid varieties such as Riesling than 14°, whether fortified or not. Light has and Chenin Blanc and when grapes of any variety replaced dry legally, and dessert has replaced are grown in very cool sites. sweet when the wine is fortified, leavingdry unde- The consensus about dryness, expressed as a fined in the United States, as it is in Canada. 4-g/L sugar ceiling, was incorporated into a reso- However, in the United States, unlike Europe, lution passed by the General Assembly of the what is not prohibited is permitted, so dry can International Organisation of Vine and Wine appear on any wine label, irrespective of sugar or (OIV Resolution no. 18) in 1973 as part of its his- acid, more or less at the whim of the producer. toric work toward an international code of eno- There are numerous examples of dry American logical practice and associated terminology. Riesling that are not legally dry by European Three years later, much the same definition standards. passed into the European Commission rulebook A greater problem is that, on both sides of the as Regulation 1608/76, with an exception to Atlantic, some legally dry Rieslings do not taste cover high-acid wines: the terms sec, trocken, dry, often (but not always) because substantial secco, asciutto, and dry may be used only if the alcoholic strength has contributed to an impres- wine concerned has a maximum sugar content of sion of sweetness. Others that are not legally dry 4 g/L irrespective of acidity, or 9 g/L maximum if taste brilliantly dry regardless, usually owing to a sugar does not exceed acidity by more than 2 combination of modest alcohol, very high acid- g/L. This sounds more complicated than it actu- ity, and lean structures. Worse, at least for the ally is. Basically, a wine can be considered dry consumer, is that mentions of wine style on with 8 g/L of sugar if it also contains at least 6 labels are entirely optional throughout the Euro- g/L of sugar, or it can contain 9 g/L of sugar if it pean Union, so many wines go to market with also contains 7 g/L of acid, neither of which is alcoholic degree the only visible clue to their unusual in Riesling from cool regions or cool style. To mitigate this problem, at least in theory, years. Ergo, as a practical matter, most European schemes with no official basis have emerged and Riesling with fewer than 9 g/L of sugar has been appear on the back labels of wine bottles, in pro- legally dry since 1976, except in the case of juris- ducer catalogues, and in importer lists when the dictions that imposed, consistent with European wines travel outside their countries of birth. (continued on next page)

Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 13 27/07/15 4:58 PM (BOX 1 HOW IS “DRY” DEFINED? Continued)

Many are the invention of individual vintners, wine’s content of unfermented sugar, adjusted especially in Alsace, where Bott-Geyl, Zind-Hum- for pH, which can then be used to localize a caret brecht, and Dirler-Cadé, to name just three, have along the length of a short horizontal bar divided embraced producer-specific sweetness indexes into dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet, and sweet (indices de sucrosité) that aspire to express sweet- segments. It has gained significant acceptance ness or dryness with single-digit numeric values, among American producers and a few German generally varying between 5 and 10 degrees. ones and now appears on several million bottles American importer Terry Theise has devised his annually. The profile’s main problem, however, is own avowedly intuitive sense-of-sweetness the discretion it leaves to individual vintners. (SOS) scale for German wines only, also com- They are permitted to adjust the outcome of the posed of single-digit values that in his case computation to reflect their personal percep- extend from –2 to +4 as his perception of sugar tions, and they may also place the telltale caret in increases. The International Riesling Founda- the middle of the appropriate bar segment or tion’s Taste Profile, a voluntary set of computa- skew it toward one end or the other of that seg- tional guidelines for producers, begins with a ment. Caveat emptor.

than 9 g/L in the presence of high acidity. The from 35 to 16 percent. These numbers are more grapes are pressed to minimize contact than statistically significant; they represent a between skins and juice, malolactic conversion new balance point among styles and reflect a is interdicted, and new wine is bottled very consumer taste that has fundamentally young, just months after the vintage, and changed. In most German regions, dry wines almost invariably is sterile-filtered before bot- are the new norm, the preference of most Gen- tling. These wines were first promoted in the Xers, and a raison d’être for many members of late 1970s as an alternative to the sweet wines the new generation of vintners, born after 1970 that had, in the view of some producers, become and professionally trained, who built their rep- a national albatross that threatened to shrink utations on dry wines made from low-yielding the market for German wines to those suitable vines sourced from sites so challenging that only as an aperitif or with dessert and to isolate their parents’ generation had neglected or aban- Germany from its neighbors exactly when a doned them. Despite persistent controversy, dry leadership role in the “new” Europe had become is the flagship style for most members of the a national priority. Initially not very successful, Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP), dry wines finally acquired traction in the sec- Germany’s most visible association of quality- ond half of the 1980s. Across the state of oriented producers. There remains significant Rheinland-Pfalz, which encompasses most support for sweeter, “traditional” styles, how- major areas of Riesling production except the ever. In early 2014, the impressive wine list of Rheingau, the share of total Riesling produc- Wiesbaden’s Michelin-starred Ente vom Lehel tion that was dry increased from 23 percent in restaurant, just beyond the borders of the Rhe- 1985 to 38 percent in 2003, while the share that ingau, comprised more than 300 German Ries- was sweetish declined in the same period from lings, and was rich in sweetish bottlings from 53 to 25 percent. Similar data for the Rheingau top producers in all regions and only slightly shows that the share of dry wines there rose biased in favor of dry wines. And most produc- from 40 to 55 percent between 1989 and 2007, ers, even those specializing in dry wines, are while the share of sweet or sweetish wines fell happy to pour something with a bit of residual

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 14 27/07/15 4:58 PM sugar for tasting-room visitors who seem open was dry but which tasted sweet, while a similar to the idea. “The glory of Riesling is the multi- fraction of American wine retailers admitted to plicity of styles,” reads the headline at the top of difficulty in recommending Riesling to their a extensive list of Rieslings on offer at Paul customers, owing to “staff uncertainty” about Grieco’s Hearth Restaurant in New York. Just whether a given wine was sweet or dry (Wine below those words, however, is a second sen- Opinions 2013). tence, in only marginally smaller type: “The Outside Germany, across the rest of its habi- problem of Riesling is the multiplicity of styles.” tat, multiple styles of Riesling coexist with vary- Indeed. ing degrees of tension or comfort. In Alsace, just While the spectrum of styles associated across the Rhine, Rieslings were as reliably dry a with Riesling is regarded by many Riesling generation ago as they were reliably sweet in champions as prima facie evidence of its great- Germany, except for a homeopathic production ness—as American importer Terry Theise put of lusciously sweet wine known locally as Ven- it in a recent blog post, “Its signal genius is to danges Tardives or Sélections de Grains Nobles. be successful over a wide continuum of sweet- This picture changed bit by bit through the nesses”—the fact of continuum distribution is 1980s and 1990s, with slowly rising alcoholic also problematic, not least because small differ- strengths and an increasing incidence of off-dry ences in acid or residual sugar are nonetheless wines containing 12 or more g/L of unfermented perceptible and can impact a wine’s suitability sugar. Although most vintners ascribe this for specific uses, seasons, food pairings, and change to riper grapes caused by global warm- wine sequences. Neophyte consumers are obvi- ing, the style change is probably better under- ously most disadvantaged by unsignposted sty- stood as a perverse “elbow” effect of Alsace listic continua, but the hazard is also great for grand cru appellations, the first 25 of which were serious professionals. Consider the 2011 experi- implemented in the late 1970s. Wines from ence of Benjamin Lewin, MW, recounted in his these new appellations, which were generally blog, Lewin on Wine. Dining at the Setai restau- sites with long-established reputations for high rant in Miami, Lewin sought to identify a dry quality, were made subject to lower maximum Riesling suitable, in his opinion, for Setai’s yield limitations. Since lower yields led vintners Asian-inspired cuisine. He and the restaurant’s to charge higher prices and simultaneously sommelier first agreed on an Alsatian Riesling increased ripeness, and since consumers of that both imagined was dry, but then made Alsace wines already associated high prices with another choice after doubts arose. The replace- the aforementioned lusciously sweet wines, ment choice, which came from the German many producers chose to implement a slightly Pfalz, turned out to be “palpably sweet” to sweet, off-dry style for grand cru bottlings. In Lewin’s palate. At this point, Lewin and the essence, they bet that wines a tad richer and head sommelier examined the other Riesling sweeter than the main run of Alsace product options on the list but found none that was would be acceptable at the necessarily higher likely to be “completely dry,” leaving Lewin to price points. All this, however, was done without opt instead for a Grüner Veltliner from the any on-label signposting. The consequence was Wachau. The experience confirmed Lewin’s a circumstance that other winemakers and some view that Riesling, in restaurants, is “a pig in a sommeliers likened to Russian roulette: the con- poke.” I can testify to similar experiences, even sumer could not know if a wine labeled as grand in fine restaurants with well-trained staff and cru would be traditionally dry or newly off-dry. award-winning lists. Occurrences of this sort In his 1999 book, published by the influential probably underlie recent survey findings that Revue du vin de France, superstar chef Alain Sen- more than a third of American Riesling con- derens cautions readers to avoid drinking Alsace sumers had bought a bottle that they thought Rieslings with “too much residual sugar” with

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 15 27/07/15 4:58 PM some of his signature dishes, such as asparagus, bit from massive losses to Chardonnay in Cali- leeks, and shellfish with Maltese sauce, suggest- fornia and to Pinot Gris in Oregon. Vinifera- ing that the reader might be well advised to based wine industries are younger in New York choose wine from a producer “who lives by the and Michigan and in the Canadian provinces of creed of dry Riesling” (Senderens 1999). Now Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia, the Alsace trend seems to be turning dry again but Rieslings from these areas also tend to fol- for even the best wines, at least as far as Riesling low Washington’s pattern of preponderantly is concerned. Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris sweetish wines. are another matter. Across the Northern Hemisphere in the sec- Diagonally across the Alps in Austria, a ond decade of the 21st century, a style map of howling scandal involving the addition of dieth- Riesling by market, if such existed, would look ylene glycol to already sweet wines made almost rather like a crazy quilt. In German regions entirely for the German market—done to make save the Mosel, as we have seen, Riesling is these wines even sweeter and fuller-bodied— assumed to be dry and most consumers expect effectively eliminated sweet white wine produc- it to be so, even as sweeter styles persist along- tion in Austria after 1985, save for a tiny quan- side dry ones. In Alsace and Austria, the next tity of lusciously sweet wines. It also established most significant Riesling-producing regions, the country as a benchmark producer of seri- production styles and consumption patterns ous, classy, and reliably dry Rieslings, along- are well aligned. In Italy, where demand for side its signature Grüner Veltliners, which (see Riesling is increasing and a bit more is planted above) were also made dry. Austrian vintners, nearly every year, the taste is for dry wines, as it however, usually pick grapes for their best is in Austria and Alsace. In the rest of Western wines in several passes several weeks apart, Europe, where Riesling is little grown, Riesling harvesting the last fruit in late October or even is generally desired and expected to be dry, early November and thus putting some upward which was not the case half a century earlier. In pressure on alcoholic strength. Some producers Britain, by contrast, the “informed consumer also tolerate significant botrytis in grapes des- recognizes Riesling as a low-alcohol, fruity tined for nominally dry wine. The combination wine of natural sweetness,” as Neil Fairlamb can produce wines that taste off-dry, either summarized the situation for the Circle of because the botrytis stops the fermentation Wine Writers, contrasting this picture with before the sugar has been fully consumed or “German drinkers of their own wine who because high alcohol makes the wine taste believe their best wines are dry with alcohol slightly sweet. levels of 12–13°” (Fairlamb 2009). Although In North America, the meteoric growth of only the tiniest dribble of Riesling is actually the wine industry in Washington, from a hand- grown in England, and that only in East Sussex ful of producers and barely 7.5 million liters of as far as I know, the British market reflects wine in 1981 to more than 400 producers and British consumers’ preference, which remains 76 million liters in 2010, combined with the overwhelmingly sweetish—exactly what they state’s enthusiasm for Riesling, which was liked a generation ago. They do seem to make deemed well suited to the state’s cold winters, an exception for Alsace, whose genuinely dry has driven a renaissance of consumer interest Rieslings from houses such as Hugel et Fils, in the variety across North America. This inter- Léon Beyer, and F. E. Trimbach sell rewardingly est was, and remains, stylistically anchored in in England. relatively sweet segments of the variety’s stylis- The U.S. market for Riesling is difficult to tic bandwidth. A similar preponderance of rela- parse reliably, but it is enormously important, if tively sweeter styles characterizes Oregon and only because the United States, since 2010, has California, where the variety has rebounded a been the single largest wine market in the

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 16 27/07/15 4:58 PM world, consuming more than 3.2 billion liters off-dry wine, in which case the Riesling is of wine, or about 14 percent of all wine con- embraced instead. This impression is consist- sumed worldwide. About 90 percent of this is ent with real data about Riesling by style and varietal table wine, a category in which a large inferences that can be drawn from the survey’s percentage of so-called off-premise consump- additional findings. Consider, for example, that tion is tracked by Nielsen, an international the best-selling Rieslings in the States are the company that studies what consumers watch so-called Columbia Valley tier of wines pro- and buy. Chardonnay is the kingpin in this cat- duced by Chateau Ste. Michelle and that the egory, accounting for 21 percent of total dollar sweeter wine in this tier, sold as Columbia Val- sales; Pinot Gris distantly trails Chardonnay at ley Riesling, outsells the dry wine, sold as 8 percent. All other varieties, including Ries- Columbia Valley Dry Riesling, 10 to 1, with no ling, command just tiny market shares. There price difference between them. The most suc- is considerable anecdotal evidence, however, cessful American-made “premium” Rieslings, and some data suggesting that the American each produced in a partnership with a respected market for Riesling is anomalous in important and high-profile German vintner, namely Long ways. Nielsen data reveal that Riesling con- Shadows’ Poet’s Leap Riesling and Chateau Ste. sumption is skewed geographically away from Michelle’s Eroica, are an off-dry wine and a the overall large U.S. wine markets. Overall, sweetish wine respectively, and both have the big markets are the northeastern and mid- attracted very favorable attention from critics. dle Atlantic states, Florida, Texas, and Califor- Finally, the two largest wine producers in nia. By contrast, most Riesling is sold in the America, Constellation Brands and E. and J. Pacific Northwest, with Seattle and Portland Gallo, have both launched Riesling brands each consuming more Riesling than the since 2000, both of them grown and made in entirety of California. Germany with catchy English-language names Data from a 2013 survey commissioned by and both of them sweetish. There is, in short, the International Riesling Foundation (see little reason for the American consumer not to Wine Opinions 2013) appear to show that the assume that Riesling is sweet, since a huge U.S. Riesling drinker is younger than the aver- fraction of what is offered in the American age wine drinker—that is, less likely to be a market is sweet. baby boomer and more likely to belong in the The image of Riesling as a sweet wine is fur- Gen-X or millennial groups, but also more ther reflected in the offerings of restaurants. At likely than the average U.S. drinker to buy rela- the Melting Pot, a chain of restaurants special- tively higher-priced wines. Abundant anecdotal izing in fondue with more than 140 locations in evidence, gathered at all points of wine sale 38 states, two of the top-selling wines in 2012 nationwide—supermarkets, wine stores, wine were German Rieslings from the Mosel, and bars, restaurants, and winery tasting rooms— the chain’s vice president for branding explained suggests that consumer interest in Riesling is that these were fruit-forward, sweeter wines disproportionately influenced by the consum- that appealed to the restaurants’ core demo- er’s image of Riesling’s style, especially its graphic. Sweetness and consumer preference sweetness. Overwhelmingly, the American also coincide in more affluent demographics. At consumer expects Riesling to be sweetish or Canlis, one of Seattle’s most reputed restau- sweet and seeks or shuns the wine as a func- rants, there were almost 150 Rieslings on offer tion of that expectation. Variations on “No, early in 2014, of which just 8 were dry. thank you, I don’t like Riesling, it’s sweet” are All of this appears to confirm findings of repeated in tasting rooms and wine bars across the 2013 consumer survey done on behalf of the country, unless the prospective consumer the International Riesling Foundation. The likes, or thinks he or she likes, a sweetish or American Riesling “fan,” the survey found,

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 17 27/07/15 4:58 PM self-avowedly prefers wines that are “sweet,” strong ties to the German Mosel, relying on “light,” and “delicious,” gravitates toward Weis Reben, the nursery owned by the Weis Gewürztraminer or Muscat (marketed as family of Weingut St. Urbans-Hof in Leiwen, for Moscato) as alternatives to Riesling, and is “less a majority of the plant material used for Riesling likely to drink Chardonnay than the average” throughout the province. Although dry styles of wine consumer. Meanwhile, 55 percent of staff Riesling have slowly begun to account for a in U.S. bars and restaurants agreed that “Ries- larger share of production in upstate New York ling is most useful by-the-glass when you need around the Finger Lakes, most vintners still a sweet or off-dry wine, while 45 percent agreed find sweeter versions easier to sell in their tast- that “Riesling is useful as an aperitif or cocktail ing rooms and to local restaurants. wine” (Wine Opinions 2013). These findings Notwithstanding this sweet and sweetish are consistent with the picture painted for an picture, however, there are now signs that dry audience of his trade colleagues in 2002 by Riesling is slowly making inroads and gaining Dennis Martin, who was until 2005 the chief traction in the North American market. On the winemaker for Hopland-based Fetzer Vine- production side, a noticeable cohort of serious yards, the sixth-largest U.S. wine producer and winegrowers and winemakers have made sig- the third-largest U.S. producer of Riesling. nificant investments in dry Riesling, occasion- Martin said that Riesling is “marketed to a con- ally as the focus of a tiny brand and otherwise sumer with a sweeter palate who is looking for as a sidebar project, in New York’s Finger Lakes something that is not white zinfandel” (Martin and Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula, on the shores 2002). of Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay, around This picture has its roots as far back as the Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, and in 1950s, when more Riesling than Chardonnay several areas of California and Oregon. Many of was grown in California, when table wine was these producers are profiled in part II of this just beginning to outsell dessert wine in the book. At the same time, a few larger producers American marketplace, and when Riesling was have seen sales of dry Riesling increase sub- virtually synonymous with soft, fruity, slightly stantially in just the past few years. Notwith- sweet, and inexpensive table wine. It may also standing that Chateau Ste. Michelle’s sweetish be reinforced, in some U.S. markets that are Columbia Valley Riesling outsells its dry sib- also important regions of domestic Riesling ling, as noted above, sales of its dry wine quad- production, by local habits and taste prefer- rupled from 2005 to 2012, from fewer than ences. In Michigan, for example, the state’s 20,000 cases annually to more than 80,000, producers concentrated on sweet wines made largely because Chateau Ste. Michelle decided from native American grape varieties and to market the wine nationally instead of region- hybrids, and on similarly sweet “wine” made ally. Meanwhile, a handful of restaurants with from berries and tree fruits, until the 1990s. special enthusiasm for Riesling, especially in Even today, the state’s largest and most success- markets known for receptivity to trends and ful Riesling producer, the pioneering Chateau discoveries, have made good room for dry Grand Traverse, still relies on cherry wine for a cuvées. At San Francisco’s ocean-oriented Faral- significant share of its in-state revenue. lon Restaurant, which has an exceptionally seri- Dry styles of Riesling sell poorly in Ontario, ous wine director, an innovative seafood-based where all wine must be marketed either directly cuisine, and a savvy clientele, 54 Rieslings were by the wineries or via the Liquor Control Board on offer early in 2014, of which 35 were dry— of Ontario, a corporation operated by the provin- including wines from Germany, Austria, cial government, which is one of the largest buy- Alsace, and California. Embrace of Riesling’s ers of alcoholic beverages in the world. Ontario’s dry idiom is even more impressive in New York young vinifera-based wine industry also has City. In 2014, Eleven Madison Park, originally

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 18 27/07/15 4:58 PM created by the legendary restaurateur Danny The most striking thing about the Riesling- Meyer in 1998 and now among the city’s most style map of Northern Hemisphere wine mar- respected tables, greeted guests with a wine list kets is not how it first appears: one sees an over- that offered an astounding 235 Rieslings, of whelming contrast between most of Europe, which at least 100 were dry. Not far away as the where the prevailing style and preference are crow flies, in New York City’s Tribeca neighbor- dry wines, and virtually all of North America hood, Paul Grieco’s Hearth offers 11 pages of and Britain, where prevailing style and prefer- Rieslings, including three pages headed “Ger- ence are exactly reversed. Yet the most striking man Trocken,” two dedicated to Austrian Ries- thing about this map is its revelation of chang- lings that are dry almost without exception, and ing consumer preferences in these markets, a page each for Alsace and New York State, especially Germany. Put succinctly, the sea offering additional dry options alongside change that has transformed German prefer- sweeter wines. ences and production since the 1980s has American wine writers, who are often taste- aroused passions and furious debate across the makers, have taken dry Riesling more than seri- land, attracted considerable attention from ously. Steve Pitcher, previously mentioned, was national media, and put winemakers on televi- an early champion of dry styles, observing sion to debate the alleged merits or demerits of approvingly that “completely dry wines made various wine styles. Nothing analogous has ever from Riesling are regarded by some connois- happened in the States with respect to any style seurs as being among the finest dry wines on of wine or any grape variety, unless it was Prohi- earth” (Pitcher 1997). Syndicated wine column- bition between 1919 and 1933 (which was cer- ist Dan Berger, long a fan of Riesling, was tainly not about style or variety). Periods of another early adopter, embracing dry Rieslings vogue for individual grape varieties have come with enthusiasm when German and Austrian and gone in North America, but these changes exemplars first became visible in American mar- have had little impact beyond the style and fash- kets. Although New York Times wine columnist ion pages of a few newspapers and newsmaga- Eric Asimov confesses to longtime affection for zines. The European context is different. As we the “distinctive” and “beautifully balanced” Ger- will see in subsequent chapters, wine was an man Rieslings made with substantial residual essential piece of the European economy as sugar, he has also enthused about dry editions of early as the 12th century and was a focus of German Riesling, the best of which he describes attention for the burgesses of new towns and cit- as “complex, layered and bold, with great energy, ies across Northern Europe. At least as early as texture and depth” (Asimov 2013a). In 2012, Asi- the 14th century, merchant and political author- mov anointed a very dry Riesling from New ities recognized important interests in the York’s Finger Lakes—the 2009 Argetsinger authenticity and purity of wines, which neces- Vineyard bottling from Ravines—as “the best sarily involve wine styles, and they did so with Finger Lakes Riesling ever made” Although heightened urgency when dubious technical there is no data, as far as I know, documenting a interventions affected winemaking. Wine was quantifiable flight of Chardonnay or Sauvignon hotly debated by German governments at the Blanc drinkers toward dry Rieslings, it makes end of the 19th century, giving rise to a tradition sense to suppose that this happens occasionally, of extensive and prescriptive wine law after at least in restaurants such as Hearth, Eleven 1891. Seen against this background, the pas- Madison Park, and Farallon and in scores of sions aroused in the 1980s, when advocates modest establishments in wine-savvy markets, appeared on both sides of the so-called Trocken- where a dry Austrian or even a California may be welle (“dry wave”) issue, arguing for and against one of a half-dozen white wines offered by the a fundamental “redesign” of German white glass, and the only Riesling. wine, become more understandable than they

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Haeger - 9780520962163.indd 19 27/07/15 4:58 PM first appear, especially from the perspective of The combat has put many respected vintners in the United States, where wine is a matter of uncomfortable positions. Annegret Reh- more recent concern, little cultural ramification, Gartner, director of the Reichsgraf von Kessel- and scant political involvement. On the one statt winery in Trier, interviewed in February hand, some German vintners assert that Ries- 2000 for Wine Business Monthly, confessed that ling is intrinsically flattered by a dry style, that “the whole subject of trocken vs. fruity wines” dryer wine styles are a more transparent expres- seemed to her “very contradictory. “We do not sion of wines’ geographic origins and therefore like our sweet image,” she told the Monthly’s friendlier to terroir, that the persistence of a pre- Lisa Shara Hall, “but I love the wines we pro- dominantly sweeter style would have consigned duce on the Mosel with residual sugar and a German Riesling to niche use as an aperitif and perfect balance. However, the image of being dessert accompaniment, and that a dryer style is sweet has always hurt us and has to be changed. necessary to maintain an international market For the Mosel, I hope that we can maintain our for Riesling as global tastes shift broadly toward classical style.” For “the other regions,” she con- dry interpretations of many grape varieties. On fessed, “the trend goes trocken.” the other side are vintners who believe passion- And so the situation remains in 2015. Ries- ately that Riesling is better and more deliciously ling carries more stylistic baggage than any expressed in a sweeter idiom, that many of the other major international variety. In North newly dry wines are unpleasantly lean, and that America, it is presumed to be sweet to some a unique, important, and organoleptically supe- degree and is avoided by consumers who prefer, rior expression of Riesling is in danger of disap- or think they prefer, dry wines, even when some pearance. Brickbats have flown in both direc- wines they consume constantly are not dry in tions, with loyalists of sweeter styles reviled as fact. Conversely, consumers who like some lemonade makers and the proponents of dry sweetness are Riesling’s best friends, blissfully wines criticized as architects of a dogmatic taste unaware that it can be and is made dry. In Ger- prison in which any wine that is not analytically many, Austria, and Alsace, a plurality of con- dry is deemed unworthy of a sophisticated pal- sumers presume that Riesling is and should be ate and inappropriate for consumption with any dry, often shunning wines not labeled as trocken, foodstuff. Especially in the Mosel, vintners have even when a touch of residual sugar might pair deplored what they perceive as threats to the better with their tandoori shrimp. Meanwhile, survival of sweeter styles and have cited anecdo- Riesling goes undiscovered by millions of wine tal evidence to support their argument that if drinkers whose white wine repertory consists the word trocken (dry) had not emerged as an entirely of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc misguided imprimatur of quality, most con- and who are unaware that greater organoleptic sumers, given a blind choice between an ana- pleasure awaits them with dry Riesling if only lytically dry wine and a dryish-tasting wine with they could control their fear of tall, flute-shaped more residual sugar, would choose the latter. bottles. This book is for all of the above.

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