The 1st International Riesling Symposium
“In the midst of today’s Riesling renaissance, it is important that the leading Riesling regions of all continents work together and exchange thoughts,” said Hessen’s former Prime Minister Roland Koch in his opening remarks and set the stage for the 1st International Riesling Symposium that took place at Schloss Rheinhartshausen in the Rheingau in Germany on November 11 and 12, 2010. It was attended by top winemakers, representatives from the trade and restaurant sector, and journalists. The conference was organized by the VDP Rheingau. The VDP is Germany’s elite winemakers association; it has about 200 members.
Eight very interesting lectures, four outstanding wine tastings - one in the morning and one in the afternoon of each day - and a walking wine dinner provided for two fascinating and highly entertaining days around Riesling. The symposium was attended by about 150 people, including such luminaries as Jancis Robinson from the UK, Willi Bruendlmayer from Austria, Helmut Doennhoff from the Nahe, Ernst Loosen from the Mosel and Colette Faller from Domaine Weinbach in Alsace. Top winemaker Wilhelm Weil and wine journalist Ingo Swoboda orchestrated the two days event.
Worldwide, there are about 34000 hectares planted with Riesling. Germany – with 22400 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. Nevertheless, Australia was a bit underrepresented at the 1st International Riesling Symposium. Alsace follows with 3500 hectares. Austria, 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 less than 1 percent of total wine production in the world - but a very special niche wine.
Lectures
He also was not sure whether the German push for the dry style is the way to go. David Schildknecht said: “German growers’ dry wines have declared total victory on their home turf ... at the same time, a tidy volume of residually sweet Riesling remains - varying by region – that, perversely, is in demand almost solely abroad, but there increasingly ardently - in the US, the work of importers Terry Theise and Rudi Wiest have contributed to this success.” Wilhelm Weil confirmed that “while 30 years ago, residually sweet wines accounted for about 80 percent of Germany’s total wine output, this share has dropped to only 10 to 20 percent today.”
David Schildknecht also criticized German wine growers for pushing the alcohol content too high. He said: "Impossible to overlook are the numbers of Grosse Gewaechse that reach 14%, a level of alcohol with which they - to say nothing of the consumer - have difficulty dealing". David argued for a lower level of alcohol content and more remaining sweetness in the wine: "German Rieslings with 10 to 20 grams of residual sugar reflect not just the natural course of fermentation, but also long-standing tradition".
3-star Michelin Chef from Restaurant Vendome in Germany provided some insights on how to combine Riesling with food. Georg Mauer, a wine retailer in Berlin, offered his thoughts on the Riesling renaissance from the trade perspective. Daniel Decker – under the heading: a brief history of the vineyard classification for the Prussian Rhine Province, including the former Duchy of Nassau - took us back to the 1800s and early 1900s, when the first attempts were made to systematically classify vineyards. Interestingly, these attempts were made with a view of taxing the revenues of the wine makers appropriately. When he does not write about wine, Daniel Deckers is a political journalist at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He just published a book about the history of the VDP. Finally, H.B. Ullrich reported about the annual Rheingau Gourmet and Wein Festival.
Wine Tastings
There were 4 impressive wine tastings, showing Riesling from 4 different perspectives. They also clearly demonstrated the versatility of this very special grape. We tasted wines that were bone dry, noble sweet, slightly sweet, young and aged.
Jancis Robinson, Financial Times, led a fascinating tasting of 21 aged Rieslings. We started out with a 1970 Heiligenstein Riesling Schloss Gobelsburg, a very delicate bone-dry wine. A highlight was the 1959 Steinberger Riesling Spaetlese, Hessische Staatsweingueter Kloster Eberbach.
I will report about the tastings separately in more detail on Schiller Wine. Here are already a few pictures.
Walking Wine Dinner
A Walking Wine Dinner with 5 renown Chefs from the region - Frank Buchholz,Jens Fischer, Kazuya Fukuhira, Mario Reuter and Harald Ruessel - and the wines of the participating wine producers concluded the first day of the seminar. I was happy to find Armin Diel’s Poet’s Leap from Washington State, a wine that is popular in the US, but difficult to find in Germany. Armin told me that you can buy it in Germany at Schlossgut Diel.
The Context
Interestingly, I believe, I was the only wine blogger participating in the event. My participation had been arranged by Ernst Loosen, the German winemaker who is highly popular in the US, and, as a far as I can see, the most important Ambassador for German wine, and in particular for Riesling, in the world. Thank you Ernie for inviting me.
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Hallo Herr Dr. Schiller,
ReplyDeletebesten Dank für Ihre ausführliche Darstellung des Internationalen Riesling Symposiums im Rheingau. Ich kann nur sagen, aufwärts mit unserem geliebten Riesling in den besten Terroirs weltweit. Und da freut es natürlich, wenn man engagierte Mitstreiter hat.
Mit besten Grüßen aus dem Rheingau
Wilhelm Weil