'If you like Sauvignon Blanc you will love this wine - here are my top 10 bottles to buy'
The very word Riesling puts many people off the wine but Christine Austin leaps to the defence of this much-maligned grape and selects her favourite bottles that are well worth the expense.
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What makes a grape variety go out of fashion?
It took just one line in the Sideways movie for the world to start rejecting Merlot while Chardonnay was left out in the cold when a character in Footballers’ Wives was given that name.
Both of those varieties have regained popularity because they are good grapes that make lovely wines, but what happened to Riesling?
Its steady decline started decades ago and shows no sign of a turn-round.
My recent visit to Alsace showed me that there were so many delicious Riesling wines, and the dilemma of will-it-be-sweet or not has largely disappeared.
The majority of Rieslings are dry, and many bottles carry a sweetness gauge so you can see exactly what taste to expect.
Even pronouncing the name has changed, with Rise-ling largely forgotten and Reece-ling definitely the preferred and correct pronunciation.
Riesling has terrific flavours – dry, zesty, vibrant and very food friendly, particularly alongside fish, pork and lightly spiced dishes.
If you like Sauvignon Blanc you will probably like Riesling, especially if no-one tells you what it is.
A few summers ago, my Aussie friend visited for a couple of weeks and managed to clear me out of a lot of wine, in particular Sauvignon Blanc.
So, I started pouring a wide range of other wines, without telling her what they were.
She assumed that they were all made from her favourite grape and happily drank them, commenting on the different flavours, but still the penny didn’t drop that I was pouring other varieties, including Albariño, Picpoul and Riesling.
So here is a challenge. Just try a bottle of Riesling, even if you have to use my Aussie guest experiment and don’t tell anyone it is Riesling before they taste it.
See if you like it, teamed with fish, spicy foods or just on its own. If you don’t like it, then regard the whole thing as an experience.
I lined up and tasted over two dozen Rieslings from Alsace, Germany, South Africa and Australia.
Here are my top ten, ranked in order of sheer delight, freshness and flavour, with just a careful eye on value for money.
If you are new to this grape then buy two bottles, one from each end of the price scale, just to discover the flavours this magical, unloved grape can produce.
Grosset Polish Hill Riesling 2023, Clare Valley, South Australia, Hic! £48: £48 is a lot of money to pay for a grape you may not like so buy a bottle and share the cost and the fabulous taste.
This is a perfect Riesling. It is like a cold shower for the tastebuds, with vibrant, lime-infused flavours and concentrated minerality.
Pour alongside oysters and shellfish for a spine-tingling experience. Made from grapes grown on the famous Polish Hill where settlers arrived in the mid 1800’s.
Martinez Wines has the 2019 vintage at £40.99 which will have even more depth and complexity.
Pikes Traditionale Riesling 2025, Clare Valley, Australia, Tesco £13: A delicious wine at almost a quarter of the price of the Grosset. Bone dry with orange blossom aromas, zesty lime and grapefruit flavours and a clear minerally crunch. Perfect with prawns, or fish and chips.
The Liberator Episode 46 ‘The Last Leaf On The Tree’ 2021, South Africa, Hoults, £25: Riesling has had a difficult time in South Africa.
An inferior grape, Crouchen was locally known as Cape Riesling, which meant that no-one was interested in real Riesling and even when it was planted and made into wine, it was not popular.
This parcel of wine comes from a top vineyard in the Constantia area which has now uprooted all its Riesling vines. Hoults have just 15 bottles of this racy, dry, minerally, lime, peach and green-apple wine.
Hugel Riesling Estate 2023, Alsace, France, Roberts and Speight £19.99: This is a completely different style from new world Rieslings. It has all the right freshness, lime zest, and floral notes but there is a roundness of style, and depth of flavour making it a complete taste experience.
Peach, apricot, crunchy minerals and a touch of herbs make this a dry-tasting, elegant wine that goes perfectly with fish and seafood.
Von Buhl Bone Dry Riesling Trocken 2025, Pfalz, Germany, Ocado £16.25: The label on this bottle looks artistically floral until you realise that the centre is made to look like a skull, which I suppose emphasises the bone-dry taste of the wine.
Just in case you are not sure, ‘trocken’ means dry. The wine has bright citrus, lemon and lime aromas with floral top-notes followed by green apple, pebble beach saltiness and a long fresh finish.
Leitz Rüdesheimer Magdalenenkreuz Kabinett 2024, Germany, Waitrose down from £14.50 to £10.87 until August 18: A difficult wine to ask for, but the producer is Leitz (pronounced Lights) and I like every wine he produces, so you are fairly safe if you see his name.
The grapes come from the famously sunny slopes of the Rheingau, and this wine combines ripe apples with grapefruit and quince flavours, backed by linear freshness.
Very slightly off dry, it pairs well with spiced fish and mild curries. At the offer price it is worth buying several bottles to enjoy over weeks, months or even years. It will last wonderfully.
Jim Barry The Florita 2024, Clare Valley Riesling, Australia, Hic! £33.75: The blustery, stony Florita vineyard is famous for producing top quality Riesling and this one has a style of its own, with floral notes, a light scent of roses, then lime zest and crunchy, almost sea-salty freshness.
Blueprint Dry Riesling 2025, Nahe, Germany, Waitrose £7.50: A great-value wine with lovely flavours. Forget that it is Riesling and just chill it down, prepare a few nibbles of smoked salmon, crudités and even little crab cakes and enjoy these fresh, floral, citrus-driven flavours.
Abtei Himmerod Riesling 2025, Trocken, Mosel, Germany, Ocado £11.25 down to £8.50 if ordered before August 11: Wines from the slate hills of the Mosel have lighter, brighter flavours with more floral notes. This has clear citrus aromas, a hint of white blossom with an elegant, pure palate.
Finest Steep Slopes Mosel Riesling 2025, Germany, Tesco £8: Crips floral aromas with lime and lemon zest, white peach fruit and a dry, crunchy finish.