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Why it tastes like this

Why does Alsace Riesling taste like that?

Riesling made fuller, drier and more powerful than in Germany, in France’s driest wine region.

What this page is and is not

These are the contributors WineHQ can name for Alsace Riesling as a category. Every one is a tendency, a convention or a mechanism, and each carries a label saying which. None of it describes how a particular producer made a particular bottle — real practice varies enormously, and a causal account that read as a recipe would be false for a great many of the wines it covers.

The grape

What does the variety bring before anyone does anything to it?

Riesling

Tendency

Characteristically very low tannin, high acidity and light-medium body. Commonly associated with lime, green apple, white peach, apricot.

Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.

Place and climate

What did the growing season do to the fruit?

A wide day–night temperature range is associated with better acid retention, because cool nights slow the respiration that consumes malic acid while warm days continue to ripen the fruit.

Not claiming: That altitude or continentality guarantees high acidity. Both widen diurnal range on average and neither determines the outcome.

Winemaking

What decisions were taken between the vineyard and the bottle?

Fermenting in a vessel that contributes nothing, to preserve fruit and freshness.

Not claiming: That every producer of this style uses this method, or that using it is required.

Age

What changes after the wine is bottled?

Ten to twenty years, and longer from grand cru sites. Alsace Riesling is drier and fuller than German equivalents and ages on extract as much as on acidity.

Not claiming: That a wine of this style will develop these characters. Ageing potential varies by producer, vintage and storage, and most wine is better young.

Follow it up

Style

Alsace Riesling

The taste profile, food matches, serving guidance and what to try next.

Science

Why wine is like this

The mechanisms behind each contributor above, explained at the scope they have been established.

Myths

What people get wrong

Several of the explanations usually given for wines like this do not survive checking.

Sources

Sources consulted