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Is Canadian riesling our nation's ringer?
It's certainly one of the leading contenders. For many of us, our first enjoyable wine in youth was most likely a sweeter white, juicy and bright, friendly, and with low to medium alcohol (my first wine foray was Blue Nun when I was 8 years old). As our palates progress, we often shy away from these simpler, fruity styles for more structured, savoury and minerally wines, which again, brings us full circle (close the ring) back to serious and ageworthy riesling.
Riesling is also a ringer for its piercing acidity. This natural and piercingly high acid provides the wine with tremendous aging potential and allowing it to nimbly balance out ridiculous levels of residual sugar. The high wire balancing act between razor acidity and ripe sugars is an addictive effort – both for the vintner and the consumer. Many blind tastings have been saved by finding this grape in the flight.
This highly aromatic grape is traced back to the 15th century, and Germany’s Rhine Valley. Part of riesling’s allure is its capacity for making a wide range of styles from achingly crisp and bone dry, to unctuously sweet and everlasting, plus bright and lively fizz. Quite a hardy grape (it is German, after all) riesling does best in poor soils that are well draining, ideally slate and sandy clay, and responds best to a long, slow ripening period. In this regard, it has found a ready home in Canada, with excellent examples from both the Okanagan Valley and Niagara Peninsula, and potential in new plantings in Nova Scotia (Gold for Domaine de Grand Pré 2016 Riesling at the National Wine Awards of Canada this year). At last year’s Riesling Rendezvous, an international group of wine professionals tasted dozens of rieslings blind over two days, and each time a Canadian wine was revealed, the tasters were unified in amazement. At this year’s National Wine Awards, judges were impressed again with the consistent strong showing across all styles, from fizz to icewine.
Here are ten top Canadian rieslings and producers, tasted this year at GOW.
