Indiana Riesling. A Tough And Versitile Wine

By Author: Stacy Replogle
Total Articles: 86
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The International Riesling Foundation

The International Riesling Foundation was created to help consumers better appreciate the many virtues of Riesling. Much from the information on this website is derived, with gracious permission, from the Riesling Guidelines Book of Pacific Rim Winery. We hope this info will help you discover the grapes, the wines, the regions they come from, the foods they match with, and much more.

Riesling - Dry or Sweet?

Do you like dry wine? Sweet? Someplace in in between? What ever you favor, there's a Riesling for you. Riesling comes in much more "flavors" than any other wine. Some are "bone dry", with no real sweetness. Other people are "medium dry" having a hint of sweet, or "medium sweet" with much more, and a few are quite simply "sweet". Indiana wineries have won numerous awards for their Riesling entries and also the future of Indiana wine is vibrant due to the Riesling varieties.

Taste

The natural grape sugar left within ...
... the wine is just one of the factors defining the taste. The natural acid and pH offset the sugar, and also the interplay of these elements in the end determines what you'll taste. For example, a Riesling with more residual sugar but higher acid might well taste drier than one with less sugar and low acid.
Sadly, numerous consumers nonetheless believe "Riesling = Sweet", and many Riesling producers don't give much info on their labels to help consumers know what taste to expect from a specific bottle. That's why the International Riesling Foundation created a voluntary Riesling Taste Profile with suggested guidelines for winemakers along with a graphic design which we hope many will use on their back labels to assist guide consumers. The design is shown beneath, with four different options of wording and also the understanding that the winemaker will figure out exactly where to place the arrow.

Riesling vines are difficult. They thrive in cold climates, on steep hillsides, and in marginal soil. The green-skinned grapes ripen later than numerous other varieties, and sometimes are left hanging around the vine to produce sweet late harvest wines or even ice wines when the grapes actually freeze around the vines. Fantastic wines are made within the vineyard, so the important is for winemakers to harvest the grapes at the optimal balance of all-natural sugar, acid and pH.

Indiana Riesling has become one of our favorites and we hope our readers will visit certainly one of the many high quality Indiana wineries and try this versatile wine. Riesling was listed as one of the leaders at the Indiana Wine Festival in May 2012. Source: kauffman winery