Riesling
Riesling is one of those “white knight” varieties: it offers the purest transition from grape flavor to wine flavor, and it is capable of “saving” almost any sort of meal. As to the former, this Rheingau (Germany) native tastes exactly in the bottle as it does as a grape just off the vine. The fruit is apricot and the texture is smooth as silk.
This is not a cool climate variety, it is a cold climate variety, so the Russian River Valley, the Sonoma Coast, and the Carneros are where it can best be grown. The cooler the weather, the more acidity the grape retains; the more acidity the grape retains, the crisper the fruit definition.
Riesling here is occasionally made in a totally dry style, in which case the wines often benefit from a little bottle age so that that initial tartness can soften out some. Usually the wine is finished off-dry (one-to-two percent residual sugar); a little sugar really allows the grape’s inherent fruitiness to most fully unfurl itself. Some winemakers will leave a higher level of residual sugar, which makes for a nice picnic wine. Then there are the botrytis-affected dessert Rieslings that are some of the most prized wines in all the world.
The dry wines—with the identifiable floral apricot notes—are great with spicy foods, from Tex-Mex to fusion. The sweeter wines go with most soft and hard aged cheeses, while the sweetest dessert stylings are blissful on their own, or when paired with honeydew melon, apricots or contrasted with Roquefort or any of the blue cheeses.
