Very good wine, very good price

Together

with Chardonnay, Riesling is ranked as one of the two premium white wine grape varietals. It claims this honour not only for the high quality of the wines it produces, but for the diversity of styles to which it can be applied.

Riesling is produced in dry, semi-sweet and sweet styles. The sweeter versions often involve “noble rot,” also know as botrytis cinerea. The presence of this special fungus helps dry out the grapes and imparts some complementary flavours. The highly concentrated flavours and sugars result in the luscious trockenbeerenauslese (Germany), sélection de grains nobles (Alsace), and the best Canadian ice wines (although ice wines typically do not have noble rot, as instead the concentration is achieved by crushing frozen grapes).

All this concentration would go for nothing except that Riesling is blessed with high natural acidity. This nervy acidity balances the sugars and also provides the preservative qualities that let these special wines age almost forever.

Riesling is an aromatic variety with a range of scents including citrus, lime, tropical fruit and floral elements. These contributions, with that special acidity, make this varietal unmistakable, and desirable, in any style.

The grape has a special knack for exposing the terroir of its vineyard. The mineral qualities of the best vignobles of Alsace and weinguter of the Mosel shine through in the wines. Some high-quality Rieslings develop terpenes as they age, imparting distinct petrol or gasoline notes to their aroma.

Gewürztraminer is a distinctively aromatic grape with scents of rose petals, lychees, tropical fruit, flowers and, sometimes, spice. It is typically high in sugar content so that it is also capable of both dry and sweet wines. It lacks the great acidity of Riesling, and care must be taken to ensure the grapes are harvested with sufficient tart grip to keep the wines from being flabby and boring. The wine of this grape has a somewhat viscous or oily body. Gewürztraminer is a mutation of a more ancient variety called simply traminer. Several such mutations are known, but Gewürztraminer is significantly more aromatic than any of the others, even if they share most other characteristics.

Interestingly enough, traminer is also part of the parentage of Riesling. DNA analysis shows that the offspring of a wild variety and traminer, crossed with the gouais blanc variety, resulted in present-day Riesling.

(Gouais blanc was a widespread, rather coarse grape variety which was commonly grown by the peasantry during the Middle Ages. Besides giving birth to Riesling, in combination with Pinot Noir it produced Chardonnay, Gamay, and many other important varieties of today.)

It seems almost natural then to see Riesling and Gewürztraminer blended in a wine, this week’s Hardy’s Stamp of Australia Riesling/Gewürztraminer 2011 (NLC $12.49). To me, the nose and initial entry into the mouth are clearly Riesling. The other varietal shows its presence in the tropical fruit elements and the weightier body. Riesling returns at the end with a crisp acidic edge.

This wine shows just a little sweetness and likely would make a perfect match with a spicy and fruity Asian-style dish. Score: 14.5. Rating: Very Good.