But, riesling is my
favourite white wine grape (as spoken about in January), and so I went off to
chat with Ed, from Highbury Vintners, to find out more about this under
appreciated wine. Ed inspired me to have the dry Jan realising month in the first
place, with his strategically placed ‘Dry January’ sign over the dry rieslings.
Ed and I share the same
love over this slender bottled beauty.
Ed has been working at
Highbury Vintners for 2 and half years. It’s a business that has been open
since the 80s, a family affair - not Ed’s family, but he knows a lot about the
business and so our chat also expanded into life as an independent wine shop.
Independent sellers have been growing steadily over the last decade as people
are getting more discerning about wine. This has been helped by more wines,
varieties and styles being readily available. I am not being biased when I
say that New World wines have really changed the way we think, feel and look at
wine. Ed said so too, kinda.
“London is
arguably the centre of the global wine market - no other city has access to the
range of wines we do and is able to sell it as we do. The growth of London
restaurant scene has made wine more accessible to people and the influence of
world food culture in my view has been at the core of this. Coupled with more
people from around the world coming to London bringing their own ideas and wine
culture.
Also
interestingly we now have a situation where young winemakers from Europe go to
the new world to hone their winemaking skills and also young winemakers from
the new world going to Europe to hone their skills! ”
The thing with variety
is that it makes ‘things’ accessible. Within a world so dominated by an idea of
what wine should be, wine developed concepts akin to brands, and France
dominated. You had to know what you were drinking, you had to understand the
village, the appellation, the terroir…Wine growing in other places around the
world, meant that cheaper wines were available. Therefore wine was moving with
the world; and boy was the world moving - quite literally, New Zealanders were
coming over to Europe with the knowledge that their favourite Sauvignon Blanc
was a kiwi one!
We have been drinking
wine since we accidentally fermented some fruit on a hot summer’s day and
enjoyed the headiness of that sip. Therefore as caught up as we can get with
wine, it is worth noting that wine is not new; but fashions do change. We are
currently (in my humble opinion) in heady times where food and therefore wine,
is ‘cool’. Pop-ups and Instagram is making the world of dinning and eating
adventurous and accessible “…people are more interested in unusual grapes, more
willing to try new things, as places like Sager and Wilde, Verden, 40 Maltby
Street, 10 Greek Street demonstrate”
Interestingly enough,
over the last two - three years the increase in 1/2 bottles and magnums
(approx. 3 fold) represents this move towards wine geekery amongst the average
person. With half bottles you can try a wider variety of wine, if just two
people at the dinner table; and a magnum is perfect for a large dinner party.
This is indicative of a trend towards eating and cooking well, at home.
“It’s pure. It sings to
you” with which Ed went on to explain how it’s not masked by oak (“it is in a
way, transparent”), and how (in the right hands) it can take on the terroir so
clearly; for example the riesling in Mosel (Germany) is slatey taking on the
aspects of the cliffs Because it can reflect the surroundings so
well, it is a “chameleon” grape, it can be dry, austere, limey, lemon,
orange, mandarin, stone fruit, ginger, slate and of course
petrol-y. This grape is so much more than its image - you can find the perfect
riesling for you. And I guess that is why it can be a bit tricky, because it
does take a little bit of of work to work out which riesling you like; but hey,
nothing good comes easy. Basically no other white grape shows it's terroir like
Riesling, terroir being the soil, location and climate from where it's grown.
The rule of thumb is a
riesling is either sweet or alcoholic -
“Think of it
like a balancing act, generally they can either be dry or sweet, and dry ones
tend to have higher alcohol than sweet ones. Sugars that are naturally present
in grapes are transformed into alcohol and carbon dioxide by the action using
yeast (basic rule of alcoholic fermentation), this stops once all the sugar has
been converted into alcohol (normally around 12-15% ABV, but if the sugar
levels are higher like in late harvest Beerenauslese and beyond then
fermentation can only produce about 7-9%ABV. Also winemakers can stop
fermentation with human intervention by using SO2 and manipulating the ferment
(normally at the cheaper end of the market to make wines sweet and simple).”
The German’s are very
traditional with their rieslings and have six classifications, - Kabinett,
Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein; listed in
order of ‘ripeness’, which breaks down as Kabinett is light and a Eiswein (ice
wine) is a dessert wine. Although nowadays German Rieslings are generally dry,
the other styles needing are more time consuming to produce and are less
popular. The Alsace rieslings are often on the dry side and the
Australians are dry, limey, petrol - “modern and food friendly” to paraphrase
Ed.
Riesling is one of the
best white wines to age. To age wine you need structure, tannins, body, acidity
and sweetness, and resiling has acidity and sweetness. You can age a Riesling
between 10 - 15 years, a lot longer than most white wines. As it ages it
becomes honeyed; tropical and richer.
In summary,
think about your personal palette, chose a riesling along the lines of
alcoholic levels to match your sweet tooth-ness, and avoid anything too new.
Personally, I think a dry, petrol-y Australian is perfect with a spicy Thai
meal.
Screw tops
are great for riesling, as it needs to be delicate to keep its purity when
ageing, therefore no oxidising from a cork, is perfect.
(Next
riesling quest is to find out why the bottles are shaped as they are...)
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