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The Amazing Story of Riesling Wine
A Unique Look at One of the World’s Most Popular Wines
No other beverage draws on the story of human history more than wine, and no other fruit known to man manifests itself in so so many different forms, flavors, fragrances, and sensations, as the wine grape is grown from vitis vinifera vines. Within the vitis vinifera species are somewhere between 5000–10,000 grape varieties, of which almost all are useless for winemaking, save a few dozen world-famous grape berries. Riesling is one of the chosen few, and like a lord ruling over a house in the broader kingdom of wine, Riesling takes its rightful place in the noble family of wines. Lords must be born of nobility, at least partly, and Riesling is no exception, although it is not purely aristocratic in ancestry. Riesling was born from a noble descendant of Savignin Blanc (not to be confused with Sauvignon Blanc) and Gouais Blanc, an esoteric tribal leader style grape from Gaul (Modern France). It is believed that Gouais Blanc was commonly used by Celtic tribes for winemaking, and is also the grandmother of Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, Chenin Blanc, Muscadelle and Riesling. Savignin Blanc (also called Traminer) is an ancient noble Germanic grape that parented the well-known Gewürztraminer, a delicious and aromatic cousin to Riesling. The direct parent of Riesling on the Germanic side was a child…
