It's a critic favorite and this list of 10 great Rieslings will tell you why.
Falernian might be one of the most legendary wines in the world, but it can't hold a candle to Riesling.
No grape is subject to the same amount of myths and misconceptions as this cruelly undervalued grape. It's a sweet grape, it's a dry grape, it's on the comeback trail, it's dying out, only Germans can do it well – the list of myths about it are myriad and often self-contradictory.
As for the yarn about German supremacy, that's a bit of a tough one. German emigrants brought Riesling with them across the world and there are wonderful examples from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as the more Germanic areas of Europe. However, the critics don't seem to think that the wines of those emigrants can match the wines of the mother country, according to the list below.
The sweet/dry thing is more straightforward. It's a product of Riesling's outstanding versatility and the fact that it covers the spectrum from bone dryness to syrupy sweetness, which is also why so many consumers are confused by it; they're never quite sure whether the next one they buy will taste like the last one.
This has hampered Riesling's progress and, indeed, has aided in something of a retrenchment for the variety. In a world of simply explained flavors that the likes of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio offer, Riesling will always suffer in comparison for its complexity and versatility.
Reading wine writers and critics on the subject tends to be like reading a romantic novel of doomed love; full of pleadings, protestations and promises, but ending up with the earnest entreaties ignored by the consumer. And, while this might frustrate wine lovers who are keenly aware of Riesling's charms, the constant message that Riesling is an undervalued gem can get tiresome for people after repetition ad nauseum.
The price of excellence
However, if the general public remain unconvinced by Riesling, wine lovers and collectors are the polar opposites, willing to expend vast sums of money on collectable bottles. Indeed, while the total price for a bottle of each of the wines listed below is actually slightly cheaper than a year ago, that's really a result of some more expensive wines falling off the list, rather than a general reduction in price. The top wine's global average price has risen by 11.6 percent in 12 months.
It isn't all about price, of course; this is a list of the world's best Rieslings, or at least those judged thus by some of the world's top wine critics.
Speaking of critics, let's talk about how we arrive at our scores. Wine-Searcher collates scores from a wide range of critics, from influential single palates like Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson to publications like Wine Spectator, all adjusted for the 100-point scale. To generate a wine's aggregate score, Wine-Searcher uses a Bayesian methodology to calculate a weighted average, since not all critics are equal. This score is calculated for specific vintages of a wine, as well as across all vintages.
We measure this score to four decimal places (even though we only display the rounded, two-digit total), so even wines with the same rounded score are in strict order.
The World's Best Riesling Wines on Wine-Searcher:It's a different list from last year, but not hugely so. The top three are the same, albeit in a different order, but there are some notable omissions. Gone from the top 10 are the Gunderloch Nackenheimer Rothenberg TBA, the surprise New Zealand entry from last year Framingham's F-Series TBA and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, the Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr TBA, which is the second most expensive Riesling on earth and famously garlanded with critical praise, although not quite enough, it would seem.
The top 10 also gives lie to the received wisdom that the greatest Rieslings come from the banks of the Mosel; the famed region has only three representatives, equal with the Rheingau. It's also interesting to see the appearance of a French wine on the list in the form of Trimbach's Clos Sainte Hune, even if it is from the most "German" of France's regions.
Perhaps the old view that Germans make the best Riesling isn't quite so mysterious after all.
December 16, 2020 at 04:08AM
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The World's Best Rieslings | Wine-Searcher News & Features - Wine-Searcher
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