Summer is definitely here in the great Pacific Northwest and I find myself gravitating towards lighter, fresher and sweeter wines. I like the low alcohol/high acid/carbonation combo on a hot sunny day. My favorite Riesling for this time of the year are the Sweet Riesling (8.5% Alcohol - definitely sweet), the Organic Riesling (10.5% Alcohol - medium sweet) and I must say that I found two great friends in the Sparkling Riesling (10.5% Alcohol - almost dry) and our Single Vineyard Daunhauer (8.5% Alcohol - sweet). That’s four wines for a hot summer and with our great free shipping on 6 bottles it is easy to try them all!

Jim Trezise is the President of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation and when in London last week for the London wine fair, he posted a good little blog about Riesling that I wanted to post here. Jim is also the President of the International Riesling Foundation. We are an active member of the IRF.

Riesling Revival

By Jim Trezise, President, International Riesling Foundation

A famous New York comedian named Rodney Dangerfield rose to stardom with one classic line: “I don’t get no respect.”

Riesling is the Rodney Dangerfield of wine.  It is arguably the most noble white wine variety in the world, and yet it remains misunderstood, underappreciated, and under-consumed.

Why? Diversity.  This is Riesling’s strength, but also its weakness.  Riesling is one of the few grapes which can produce wines ranging from bone dry to intensely sweet and many taste sensations in between.  That’s a strength. 

The weakness is that consumers often can’t predict what taste sensation is in each bottle—dry, medium dry, sweet—and can be unpleasantly surprised if they guessed wrong and the wine doesn’t fit the meal they planned.

Happily much is changing in the world of Riesling, and the International Riesling Foundation (IRF) is trying to accelerate that change.  First, there is clearly a Riesling revival occurring, at least in the United States where Riesling has become the fastest growing white wine and only a tad behind Pinot Noir among all wines.  This renaissance began a few years ago, and the IRF was formed to catch the wave and turn a serendipitous blip into a long-term trend.

There are many strengths to promote.  Riesling provides a great reflection of “terroir” not only among countries or regions but individual vineyards, guaranteeing infinite variations around a common theme.  Riesling is the most versatile “food wine”, with the different styles acting as complement or counterpoint to an incredible range of cuisines as well as serving as a great, palate-enhancing aperitif.

Then there’s Riesling’s diversity.  We’re seeking to turn that into a consistent strength by letting consumers know what’s in each bottle.  The method: a Riesling Taste Profile developed by the IRF.

One of our first projects involved market research by Wine Opinions on consumer perceptions of Riesling.  Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority think of it only as “a sweet white wine”.  More troubling, those who don’t drink it are not at all interested in trying it.

So we developed the Riesling Taste Profile, spearheaded by California wine journalist Dan Berger in conjunction with Riesling wine makers throughout the world.  The concept is to use the interplay of sugar, acid, and pH to predict the taste profile of a particular bottle—Dry, Medium Dry, Medium Sweet, or Sweet.

The IRF Riesling Taste Profile includes technical guidelines for wine makers, including a summary chart, but it is ultimately up to the wine maker where he or she places the arrow along a horizontal continuum.  That graphic, in turn, may be used on back labels, point of sale materials, and in other ways to help consumers.

Everything related to the Riesling Taste Profile is available on the IRF web site (www.drinkriesling.com), including examples of some wineries already using it, downloadable art for those who wish to, and sample “neck hangers” as a point-of-sale options. 

The largest U.S. Riesling producers, Chateau Ste. Michelle and Pacific Rim of Washington State, are both committed to using it, as are many smaller producers in the U.S., New Zealand, South Africa, and other countries. We expect that it will become an industry standard within a few years, helping consumers predict what they’re buying and helping producers sell more Riesling.

The IRF has focused on the U.S. market to date due to its great potential for Riesling growth, but is truly an international organization with a prestigious Board of Directors from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States (California, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Washington).  The Board is listed in the “About Us” section of the web site.

Indeed, the web site is our window for consumers to discover the wonderful world of Riesling, with information about the grapes, the wines, the foods, the regions, the Riesling Taste Profile, and much else.  Another key trend in the U.S., and perhaps elsewhere, is the importance of the “millennial” generation (essentially in their 20’s) to the future of the wine market.  They love wine, like to experiment, want to be educated (not “sold”), and provide great opportunity for Riesling.  As a result, we’re now working on several web enhancements that will tie right in to the “social media” explosion.

Another promising trend is the increasingly broad coverage of Riesling by wine and food media throughout the world.  Long-time proponents like Stuart Pigott, Jancis Robinson, Howard Goldberg, and Dan Berger are now being joined by many others who in the past paid little heed to the greatness of Riesling.But we still have a long way to go.  At the London International Wine Fair, I asked a top wine shop representative how Riesling sells.  He said better, but it’s still more of a case filler than a first choice.  In other words, when consumers buy 8-10 bottles and have a couple slots left, they often choose a Riesling or two.

In other words, Riesling don’t get no respect.  We need to change that.

I don’t usually like to talk about m private life on a blog, but I am getting really excited about my July trip to Germany. It will be short (I will be on my way to a family event in southern France) and I am lining up two days of Riesling frenzy. Here is a glimpse of my trip so far:

• Dinner with the Selbach on the 8th;
• Visit of Selbach Oster, Sankt Urban Hof and Schloss Lieser on the 9th (Mosel)
• Visit of Schloss Johannisberg, Von Mumm and two other on the 10th (Rheingau) and fly out…

I have my Audi shift stick with GPS unit rented. feeling just like a little boy going to Disneyland…

Yesterday I had a good chat with the sommelier of a local restaurant called bluehour.  We were chatting about making money with by the glass pouring and he had an interesting take on it. First some facts:

1) Usually restaurants get on average 5 pours per 750ml bottles.

2) Restaurants like to mark up wines up to 4 times (especially for by the glass vs by the bottle).

3) Restaurant buy wines wholesale, sometimes with a special “by the glass price”. Let’s assume that wholesale is about 30% less  than retail.

Now here is the math that most restaurant do: Buy a $9.99 retail bottle of wine ($7 wholesale), mark it up at least 4 times ($7 X 4 = $28), pour 5 glasses out of it and sell them at $6 each. Profit would be: (5 X 6) - 7 = $23 per bottle. Not bad….

My Sommelier friend was arguing that it was crazy math because a) you really rip off the customer (the customer could almost buy a whole bottle at that price) and b) you do not maximize the take home per bottle for the restaurant. Here is his math: Buy a $30 retail bottle of wine ($21 wholesale), mark it up gently 2.5 times ($21 X 2.5 = $52.5), pour five glasses out of it and sell them at $11 each. Profit would be (5 X 11) - 21= $34 per bottle. 50% better than the previous calculation. Not only you got more money per bottle but you also offered a great wine to your customers at a more reasonnable cost (you definitely could not buy a bottle retail of that $30 wine at $11).

I think he has a point….

Last week I gave a talk to a group of importers that were touring eastern Washington with the Washington Wine Commission. My topic was Riesling acreage and clonal selection in Washington State. I wanted to put some of the interesting facts I found out on this blog for reference.

Riesling acreage is about 145,000 acres worldwide. Most of the acreage is located in the old world (Germany and Alsace). In the new world, Australia has the largest acreage followed by Washington State. To put it in relationship with other regions, Washington has about 4,500 acres of Riesling which is about twice the acreage of California and about half the acreage of Alsace. 

Washington’s Riesling is either quite old (older than 25 years - representing 40% of total acreage) or quite young (less than 7 years - representing 40% of total acreage). This age distribution has probably to do with the early successes of Riesling in Washington followed by a low growth period (for Riesling in general) in the 90s and an accelerated growth since the beginning of the new millenium.

The acreage older than 25 year old is planted a bit everywhere throughout the State with about 25% in the Yakima Valley. Although there are no record of where the clonal material came from, one can guess about two probable sources. The first one is the stock that was brought in by Upland winery (closed in 1972) in the late 30’s on the eve of the repeal of prohibition. This selection was planted in Sunnyside and came from Germany (Upland’s winemaker was German). The second probable source is California. Before the 70’s, only clone 1 seemed to have been available in quantity. Clone 1 is also of German origin and came through Oregon State University. Those two sources are probably the origin of most of Washington’s Riesling.

The younger plantings are less scattered than the earlier ones and concentrated in the Yakima Valley (about 50% of all Riesling is grown in “the valley”) and in the Horse Heaven Hills (25% of all Riesling is grown there). The clonal selection available post 1970 was more varied since the Foundation Plant Service (FPS) in California had introduced several German clones in the 50’s. The probable materials that were brought in for newer planting (the American FPS clone number is the short number, I am including the “translation”  for reference) includes clone 9 and 24 (Geisenheim 110), Clone 12 (Neustadt 90), Clone 17 (Geisenheim 198), Clone 23 (Geisenheim 239). Other clones might have come up to Washington such as the “Martini clone” (FPS 10), the Conegliano 100 (FPS 19), the Clos Pepe clone (FPS 20), the Mendoza clone (FPS 22), ENTAV 49 (FPS 49). Of course, most new plantings might just have been propagated from the wood of older vineyards. No one know for sure, but I would guess that 80% of new plantings still come from the original selections.

At Pacific Rim, we are probably a mini sample of Washington’s Riesling. 30% of our vineyards are indeed older than 25 years. 40% of our Riesling comes from the Horse Heaven Hills (Wallula Vineyard) with the balance coming from the lower Yakima Valley (in a narrow strecth at the highest elevation available between Sunnyside and Prosser). Our newer planting are all clone 110, 239, 198 and 90 from Germany (representing about 65% of all our Riesling), who knows what the older vines are.

Made from fresh raspberries grown specifically for this wine, it is sweet, certainly, but with such intense, mouthwatering fruit flavors that the sweetness comes in second.

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