The Wines

Do you like dry wine?  Sweet?  Somewhere in between?  Whatever you prefer, there’s a Riesling for you.

Riesling comes in more “flavors” than any other wine.  Some are “bone dry”, with no discernable sweetness.  Others are “medium dry” with a hint of sweet, or “medium sweet” with even more, and some are quite simply “sweet”.

The natural grape sugar left in the wine is just one of the factors defining the taste.  The natural acid and pH offset the sugar, and the interplay of these elements ultimately determines what you will taste.  For example, a Riesling with more residual sugar but high acid may well taste drier than one with less sugar and low acid.

Unfortunately, many consumers still think “Riesling = Sweet”, and many Riesling producers don’t give much information on their labels to help consumers know what taste to expect from a particular bottle.  That’s why the International Riesling Foundation developed a voluntary Riesling Taste Profile with recommended guidelines for winemakers and a graphic design which we hope many will use on their back labels to help guide consumers.  The design is shown below, with four different options of wording and the understanding that the winemaker will determine where to place the arrow.