All the medallists from the Global Riesling Masters 2023

At times criminally under-appreciated and unloved, Riesling makes wines of great quality and character all over the world, as Patricia Stefanowicz MW discovers.

Riesling, the darling of wine professionals, has been undervalued and under-appreciated by wine consumers during a period when full body and oak are hallmarks for crowd-pleasing offerings. Riesling does not like new oak, and tends to have moderate alcohol.

Another mark against Riesling is that the wines often have some sweetness… very unfashionable. However, this under-recognised grape should be reconsidered, as the high percentage of wines awarded Silver, Gold and Master medals in our 2023 Global Riesling Masters suggests. The judges found great wines in a wide variety of styles and at all price points.

Although not the oldest documented variety in its homeland of Germany and Alsace, Riesling was first mentioned on an invoice dated 1435 from a castle in the southeast of the Rheingau. Widely cultivated in the Mosel and the Rhine from the middle of the 16th century, German Riesling was highly prized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and prices then matched (or exceeded) those of the great red wines of Bordeaux and Bourgogne. Connoisseurs recognise that, due to the combination of high acidity and high extract, these wines can develop in bottle for decades, regardless of levels of sweetness and alcoholic strength.

Under the influence of Germany’s viticultural researchers at Geisenheim and the specialist centre at Trier, German growers can choose from more than 60 different clones. In nearby Alsace, most of the wines are dry and full-bodied, although in some years Alsace’s dry climate allows extended ripening for medium-sweet vendage tardive, or the sweeter Sélection de Grains Nobles. In Germany, almost all the growers in the Rhine regions and the Mosel are dedicated to Riesling for their top age-worthy wines. In contrast to wines from the Alsace, German Rieslings vary from bone-dry Grosses Gewächs with 13.5% alcohol to delicate, late-harvest medium-sweet or sweet wines with a mere 7-8% ABV and gentle apple, apricot and orange marmalade flavours.

Nearby Austria produces aromatic, full-bodied, dry Rieslings, and the best wines we judged came from the Wachau and Kremstal in Neiderösterreich, showing orange blossom, acacia honey and peach fruit. Steiermark in southeastern Austria is another region to search out for expressive Rieslings. Unsurprisingly, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia and its next-door neighbour, Friuli in northeastern Italy, also produce attractive Rieslings, and there are plantings in Alto Adige, Hungary, Moldova and Bulgaria.

Courtesy of the influx of Silesians during the 19th century, Riesling was for a long time the most planted white variety in Australia, although it was surpassed by the ubiquitous Chardonnay around 1990. Nowadays, the plantings are focused in areas well-recognised for making world-class Rieslings: Eden and Clare Valleys, Tasmania and Great Southern. From the samples we saw this year, the style is both consistent and consistently delicious: bone-dry wines exhibiting minerality and racy acidity, supporting tangy, lemon-lime fruit. Orlando, Pikes and Gatt showed particularly well in our tasting.

Riesling is grown in the Americas, South and North. Chile’s Viña San Pedro definitely won kudos for value for money when awarded a Gold for its 9 Lives Riesling, priced at only £9. In North America, delicious, often off-dry Rieslings are produced in Washington State and Oregon, and in the Finger Lakes area in upstate New York. Across the border in Canada, especially in Ontario, fine, delicate ice wines are made. Two different styles of ice wine: Peller with a little botrytis, Trius without, excited the judges and formed a delightful coda to our judging day.

There were some very nice wines from unexpected sources. Arba Wine from Kazakhstan provided a couple of interesting wines, one an oaked version with excellent expression and balance. The judges unanimously agreed that Riesling is unjustly snubbed. Relatively light and certainly elegant, showing texture and with bracing acidity often balanced by sweetness and, occasionally, gentle creamy wood, these wines are perfect as aperitifs, accompanied by cheese, or by a diverse range of savoury or sweet dishes.

Sparkling Medium Dry (up to 12g/l)

Still Dry (up to 4g/l)

Still Medium Dry (up to 12g/l)

Still Medium (up to 45g/l)

Still Sweet (45g/l+)

Icewine

Across the Tasman Sea, there are off-dry Rieslings, exhibiting apricot, orange blossom and honey, produced in New Zealand, especially in Marlborough and Waipara on the South Island, and we judged a few of those in 2023.