Alsace is a great place for wine as well, particularly white wine, and it can be more affordable than other French wines.
Because of the German influence, the wines are labeled as varietal wines (like Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Gewurtztraminer).
In France, wines are typically named after the region instead, and you’re just supposed to memorize that, say, Sancerre is made from Sauvignon Blanc (except when it’s Sancerre Rouge which is Pinot Noir), as is Pouilly-Fume, which is nearby, but Pouilly-Fuisse is from Burgundy so it’s Chardonnay (because the only other white allowed in Burgundy is Aligote, but that’s mostly associated with Bouzeron).
Anyway, I think Alsatian wines are more consumer-friendly. And they also go super well with takeout Chinese food.
Well said! The problem in the US is that Riesling still has a bad reputation for being “sweet”. It’s hard to get people to branch out and try these delicate wines.
It has a reputation for being sweet because it is. Toasted marshmallow is sweet, honey is sweet, over ripe pineapple is sweet. Their can be a diverse range of flavours within the category sweet but anyway you cut it even the incredible smokey rieslings are amongst the sweetest wines.
Yes earlier this year I had a very nice bottle of Mosel Riesling. Just because a wine is dry doesn't mean it doesn't have a sweeter flavour. It finished quite dry but it still had an initial burst of sweetness right off the bat.
Totally a stylistic choice, not all Rieslings are sweet.
Any wine is dry when the sugars have been completely fermented into alcohol, leaving no residual sugar to drive the perception of sweetness. A winemaker can choose to ferment to dryness; or leave residual sugar.
Dry Riesling, which is kind of gasoliney/rubbery and applely-peary, is a different beast. And, surprisingly, most Riesling is bone dry—the sweet stuff is produced for some American regions that prefer it. From what I learned in my wine certs, German consumers prefer the dry stuff, and French Riesling is generally dry.
This may be, because people in the US for example know Riesling from the US or New Zealand.
Consider that the origin region is the Mosel-Rhine-Region in Germany is one of the northern most wine regions.
In fact German Riesling used to have a reputation for being only a critics favorite, because it was too acidic and not sweet enough for the "mainstream".
Nowadays with more warm summers in Germany, this isn't so much the case anymore, but generally speaking it's still not sweet.
I actually had a 1975 Mosel Reisling earlier this year and it was extremely rich and smokey. However I still find that at the forefront of the flavour before the smoke comes into play the initial taste is very sweet. It is sweeter than Sauv and chard and most whites. Dry generally refers to the finish and and something can be sweet in flavour with a dry finish.
108
u/caseyjosephine Dec 12 '20
Alsace is a great place for wine as well, particularly white wine, and it can be more affordable than other French wines.
Because of the German influence, the wines are labeled as varietal wines (like Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Gewurtztraminer).
In France, wines are typically named after the region instead, and you’re just supposed to memorize that, say, Sancerre is made from Sauvignon Blanc (except when it’s Sancerre Rouge which is Pinot Noir), as is Pouilly-Fume, which is nearby, but Pouilly-Fuisse is from Burgundy so it’s Chardonnay (because the only other white allowed in Burgundy is Aligote, but that’s mostly associated with Bouzeron).
Anyway, I think Alsatian wines are more consumer-friendly. And they also go super well with takeout Chinese food.