A Pause for Reflection
I suppose it might be flippant to answer the question “Why is there an international foundation to support Riesling?” with, “Why not?”
Depending who you are, the need for such a formal organization is either obvious or it is pointless. A resident of Trier who dines out, is a wine lover, and has many contacts with the German wine industry would be among the latter. To this person, Riesling is clearly one of the greatest wines in the world and to create an organization to support it might seem to be completely unnecessary.
By contrast there are those who would not only ask the first question posed above, but might also ask, “What is Riesling anyhow?”
That’s because the reality is that, despite wide recognition as a great grape and a great wine, Riesling remains either completely unknown for those traits, or simply unknown, period, in some areas of the world.
Consider that in the United States about one bottle out of every five consumed is Chardonnay. By contrast, Riesling sales are so small they are included in the category called “other, 2%.” Which means it is part of the same group of wines that includes French Colombard, Semillon, and Carmine.
In the late spring of 2006 a group of Riesling fanatics got to chatting and noted that there were more great Rieslings extant than ever before in history. Not only was German Riesling more divergent than ever before with wines of dramatic sweetness levels all the way to zero, but modern wine making techniques, better understanding of viticulture, and emerging new regions with their own unique styles all have reconstituted the face of Riesling in the 21st century.
And still the grape and its wine were less known than they ought to be.
As we chatted, it became clear that all of this excitement was due to the fact (one we all acknowledged) that Riesling sales in the United States , and some other areas of the world, were on the rise.
Yet those sales were not reflected in the scores that Rieslings were getting from supposedly knowledgeable wine critics who were, in reality, Chardonnay lovers, Cabernet Sauvignon lovers, and lovers of a lot of other “big” wines, but who seemed totally ignorant of one aspect of Riesling’s persona that is intertwined with its character.
That is the ability of this grape, and its resulting wine, to display the character of the soil from which it is drawn. Whether you use the famous French T-word, or regionality, or placeness, Riesling – of all the world’s greatest wine grapes – is probably the most site-specific of them all. Enveloped in all this is the fact that it is perfectly valid to consider site-specificity when judging the character of a Riesling.
Thus it is possible to have a wide array of wines that are all rated equally sensational even though one has an aroma of lime and is bone dry, another smells like clover blossoms and is slightly sweet, and yet another has enough petroleum to smell like a tanker at refueling time.
Alas, some of the movers in the wine world seemed to be fixated on one or two styles of wine that they viewed as valid. And thus Riesling producers in far-flung regions were being discouraged to pursue making this wine by so-called experts who, in reality, knew little about the grape and its regional idiosyncrasies.
So back in 2006, we discussed the fact that not only does Aunt Minnie from Minnetonka need some direction on how to view and buy Riesling, but so do wine merchants. And wine wholesale sales people. Even sommeliers, who supposedly get training in Riesling, admit they don’t know enough about these wines.
As a result, the discussions turned to regional marketing groups. And it was unanimously noted that in California , where some 90%+ of all U.S. wine is grown, no regional marketing group ever mentions Riesling.
And at last, somewhat like Mickey Rooney in the old Andy Hardy films, someone suggested, “Hey, why don’t we do it?!”
So we did.
The International Riesling Foundation clearly has a goal — to ratchet up people’s understanding and knowledge about this superb grape. From the commercial nature of the (dot-com) name of this web site, you can tell we hope more people will buy Riesling, and members of the board of directors are pretty much from the industry.
But our goal can’t be met unless we improve awareness of Riesling’s wonderful attributes (lower alcohol; usual lack of oak; regional distinctiveness; ageability) while at the same time we become a repository for the wine’s superb lore, its history, and its modern-era identity.
To that end, we encourage all people who have an affinity for Riesling to help us in our quest. All contributions are welcome and the best will be posted as we go forward to lift Riesling to its rightful place in the society of great wines.
Dan
Dan Berger
P.O. Box 5857
Santa Rosa , CA 95402
707-528-9466