Riesling – A Sweet Connection
From WineStyle's Jill Stacey
Meet your fellow Sweet Connection members and taste this wine and Sweet Pea Apple Wine at the WineStyles Sweet Meet Wine Tasting Event on September 15th.
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Riesling - sometimes crisp and clean, sometimes sweet and smooth, and many times extra sweet! This German varietal is very versatile, but can be confusing when you look at labels. Don’t let the labels and names confuse you. It is relatively logical on how to tell how sweet a Riesling is. The German Government laid out a plan, called the QmP pradikat, used to define the wines according to how long the grapes ripened on the vine which corresponds to how sweet the wine will be. Remember at the beginning of the summer the grapes are tart and crisp, then as the summer heat goes on the grapes get softer with more sugar. There you go. Now you just have to remember in what order the picking occurs! And you thought it was rocket science.
The QmP structure is listed below in order of earliest picking to latest picking.
Kabinett - first pick of season with typical crisp tangy flavors.
Spatlese – next picking as grapes mature and have more intense flavors.
Auslese – very soft ripe and juicy with higher concentrate of sugar.
Beerenauslese – typically extremely ripe with signs of botrytis fungus – the noble rot – this is a good thing!
Eiswein - they wait for them to freeze – and process frozen, expensive and rare but very good.
Trockenberrenauslese – shriveled and small, almost raisins but produce incredibly rare dessert wines.
QbA wines are more simple wines that are a variety of grapes grown in different vineyards and combined together. They are good, yet simple and typically lower in price as well.
Here is a great wine to look for:
 Bloom Riesling - Bloom is sourced from selected Mosel Vineyards in the prestigious appellation of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer in Germany. It’s low in alcohol and high in delicious fruity aromas and flavors! The aromas begin with peach and apple and give way to the matching flavors with just enough crisp acidity so the wine doesn't taste too sweet. It’s a lovely summer – guilty pleasure that you can enjoy with Asian cuisine, chicken dishes and even spicy Thai food.
 Other superb Rieslings: Leitz Dragonstone / Gunderloch / Rudi Wiest
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