LIQUOR / Riesling

I think that Riesling is indisputably the greatest white wine grape in the world but many people think I am mad. Riesling has its own very distinctive character which varies immensely and excitingly according to exactly where it is grown. Riesling responds rather badly to winemaking tricks. It is happiest when it is just fermented as simply as possible and the pure fermented juice bottled with minimal resort to oak, malolactic fermentation, less stirring and so on.

To me Riesling is great not just because it, like Pinot Noir for example, is so exceptionally good at expressing terroir, but also because it makes white wines that are so good at ageing.  JANCIS ROBINSON

Riesling is grown all over the world but its best results come from the "mean" soils of its spiritual home in the German regions of the Mosel, Nahe, Pfalz, Rheingau and Rheinhessen and parts of Austria. Arguably the best dry examples come from Australia's Clare Valley where the sub-regions of Watervale and Poilsh Hill River deliver some exceptional long-lived wines.