Thursday, November 15, 2012

Top 10 Riesling Producers in the World – Snooth 2012

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Manfred Pruem, Weingut J.J. Pruem

Snooth has issued a list of its top 10 Riesling producers in the world. See here  on Snooth.

Riesling in the World

Worldwide, there are about 34.000 hectares planted with Riesling. Germany – with 22.400 hectares – accounts for 2/3 of the total. The second largest Riesling producer is Australia, with 4500 hectares. But this is only about 1/10 of the total. Alsace follows with 3500 hectares. Austria, with 1800 hectares, the US with Washington State and New York State as well as New Zealand make up the remainder. But overall, Riesling is really a niche wine, accounting for only less than 1 percent of total wine production in the world - but a very special niche wine.

Dry and Sweet Riesling

Many wine drinkers, in particular outside of Europe, when they see a Riesling in the shelves, have the association of a sweet-style wine. This is however misguided. Rieslings as a rule are dry wines. Of course, there are the famous sugar sweet Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, Eiswein and Schilfwein wines from Austria and Germany, the Sélection de Grains Nobles from France, the icewines from Canada and other Rieslings, made from botrytized, dried or frozen grapes. The grapes that go into these wines have such a high sugar content that there is nothing you can do to make dry wines out of these grapes. They inevitably produce nobly sweet wines. But apart from these exceptions, which account for only a tiny share of total production, Riesling grapes in Germany, Austria, Alsace, the US and Australia have normal sugar content at the time of fermentation and tend to produce dry wines, when fully fermented.

However, modern cellar methods allow winemakers in Germany to produce wines with a bit of residual sugar with these grapes. There are principally two methods applied in Germany – but neither in Austria nor Alsace - for making these sweet-style Rieslings. First, you do not let the fermentation run its course and stop it; as a result, you get a deliciously sweet and low alcohol wine. Second, you let the wine fully ferment to a normal alcohol level and then add Suessreserve (sterilized juice) to achieve the desired degree of sweetness. These sweet-style wines have lost popularity in Germany, although there appears to be a comeback, but in any case remain very popular outside of Germany, for example in the US.

Gregory Dal Piaz

The list was established by Gregory Dal Piaz, editor-in-chief of Snooth. I can imagine how difficult it was to establish such a list. Probably, he started out with say 50 winemakers and then narrowed it down to 10. Well, 40 had to go. This is not easy and Gregory had to make tough choices. Overall, his list is excellent, although I have some doubts as to the inclusion of at least 3 producers on the list.

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller with Gregory Dal Piaz in Italy

Also, only 4 producers are from Germany, although 6 to 7 out of 10 bottles of Riesling produced in the world are made in Germany. Austria and Alsace seem to be e overrepresented. Austria is a marginal Riesling producer, but 2 producers made it to the list.

4 German Producers

Doennhoff

A German elite wine producer from the Nahe.

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Helmut Doennhoff, Weingut Doennhoff

Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben

Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben could perhaps been considered for inclusion in this list 20 or 30 years ago, but is no longer an elite wine producer.

Joh. Jos. Pruem

An elite producer of fruity sweet and noble sweet wines from the Mosel region

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Katharina Pruem, Weingut Pruem

See also: JJ Pruem Goes Supermarket: Meeting Katharina Pruem and Tasting the Incredible JJ Pruem Wines at Wegmans

Robert Weil

The King of the Rheingau Riesling.

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Wilhelm Weil, Weingut Weil

See: Visiting Wilhelm Weil at his Weingut Robert Weil in Kiedrich, Germany

1 Australian Producer

Grosset

The King of Australian Riesling.

2 Alsatian Producers

Trimbach

An elite winemaker from Alsace.

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Jean Trimbach, Domaine Trimbach

See:

Visiting Jean Trimbach at Maison Trimbach in Ribeauville in Alsace

The World Class Wines of Alsace

Jean Trimbach and the Wines of Maison Trimbach in Washington DC

Boxler

Boxler makes good wines but is not in the same league as the others on the list.

2 Austrian Producers

F. X. Pichler

A world class winemaker from the Wachau.

Alzinger

A very good Austrian producers, also from the Wachau, perhaps a tick behind F.X. Pichler (and a few others).

1 American Producer

Hermann J Wiemer

A German from the Mosel Valley, Hermann J. Wiemer has become the father of American Riesling, from the Finger Lakes.

German Winemakers in the World: Hermann J. Wiemer

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German American Wines: (1) NV Two Worlds Pinot Noir, (2) Poet's Leap Riesling and (3) Herrmann J. Wiemer and his Finger Lakes Rieslings

1 comment:

  1. hilarious! talking about best riesling in the world, where is Egon Müller???

    ReplyDelete