That's easy -- look at the label!   

You may soon be able to figure out how just how dry -- or sweet -- a bottle of Michigan Riesling tastes with a quick glance at its label.

The "Riesling Taste Profile" pinpoints a wine's sweetness on a scale from Dry to Sweet. The International Riesling Foundation (IRF) developed the Profile in consultation with wineries in a half-dozen countries, and made it available earlier this month for winemakers worldwide to print on their labels.

"Riesling’s many styles can fit almost any taste preference, but consumers may be put off if they are expecting one taste and get another," explained California wine journalist Dan Berger, who spearheaded the profile's development for the IRF.

"It allows wine tastes to be more easily conveyed to consumers," said Ed O'Keefe III, president of Chateau Grand Traverse, Michigan's largest Riesling producer. "Today, people can put a wine out there and call it dry, even if it's sweet."  (See  MichWine's interview with O'Keefe for more details.)

Riesling is Michigan's most-planted wine grape, and one for which the state enjoys a national reputation. O'Keefe represents Michigan on the IRF board, which also includes members from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, and five other U.S. states.

Sugar content isn't the only factor in where a wine falls on the scale. Tthe IRF uses a formula to calculate a wine's "perceived sweetness" -- how sweet it should taste to someone drinking it -- based on sugar, acidity and pH. This reflects the sensory deception that causes high-acid wines to taste drier than their sugar content alone might suggest.

Not every Michigan winemaker is entirely happy with the IRF scale.

"If we use the term 'dry' the wine should be dry," said Jim Lester, owner / winemaker at high-end Wyncroft Winery, which releases a single, bone-dry Riesling.  

"Nobody seems to want to do this, preferring to have a perceived advantage of calling a wine dry when it's got a half-gram of RS [residual sugar] in it," Lester said. "It isn't dry! Sorry!"

Use of the scale is purely voluntary. Wineries may also decide to use it for grapes other than Riesling, or for blended wines, something that Dan Berger clearly hopes for.

"I have already suggested that people who make any sweet wine, even if it doesn't contain any Rielsing at all, use the scale," Berger told MichWine. "It's a lot better than someone who has a Gewurz trying to reinvent the scale in a different way."

Trackback(0)

Comments (0)

Write comment

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment Preview