Riesling is world famous for its wonderfully

intense perfume and its crisp acidity which it

manages to retain even at high ripeness levels.

Riesling is world famous for its wonderfully intense perfume and its crisp acidity which it manages to retain even at high ripeness levels.

Riesling's history lies in Germany where it is responsible for all its greatest wines. Here it produces delicate, racy and stylish wines that cover a wide spectrum of flavours from steely and bone dry with beautifully scented fruits of apples, apricots, and sometimes peaches, through to the exotically sweet flavours of the great sweet wines.

It is also an important variety over the French border in Alsace where it produces slightly earthier, weightier and fuller wines than in Germany. The dry Rieslings can be austere and steely with hints of honey while the Vendages Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles are some of the greatest sweet wines in the world.

If its history is in Germany its future is in the New World where, Riesling is enjoying a marked renaissance. In Australia the grape has developed a formidable reputation, delivering lime scented masterpieces.

Over in New Zealand, the Kiwis are more inclined to be lighter bodied, more ethereal and sometimes off-dry; a cross between the fireworks of the Australians and the complexity of Alsace.