by Bill Hooper » Fri May 20, 2011 2:01 pm
Let me first say that I too don’t think of Zind-Humbrecht as representative of most Alsace Riesling. But I think that there is a time and a place for it.
It is impossible to duplicate Alsatian Riesling in another country or region (that whole Terroir thing), but your question is a good one. Once upon a time and up until around the 1940s, all Riesling (from Germany, Alsace and Austria) was pretty much produced the same way. That is to say (very simply stated) it was harvested selectively or not so selectively, given a couple of hours or even a couple of days of skin-contact, pressed off the skins, the must was allowed to settle by gravity, it was racked into another wood barrel where it would’ve fermented by way of wild yeasts. Depending on the yeasts, the cellar temperature, the amount of sugar present in the grapes and other variables the fermentation would take anywhere from a couple of days to 9 or 10 months to complete. Depending upon the temperature of the cellars and amount of malic and other acids in the grapes, the wine would or would not go through a malolactic fermentation. It was racked again after the primary fermentation, perhaps fined and given a final dose of sulfur, perhaps it was racked for a third time before bottling (if it was bottled at all.) And there you have it. Sweet wine was produced when nature allowed it to be produced, but far more often than not, Riesling was made dry.
After WW2, Germany and Alsace (separated for the final time) diverged stylistically in significant ways. Germany set out to conquer and tame its unique challenges in typical German fashion with science and technology. A generally cooler climate with more rain produced grapes with lower alcohol, more problems with botrytis, and higher acidity. Stainless steel tanks, cultivated yeast-strains, temperature control, filtration, and chemical additions all did their part to add some measure of safety and certainty to the wines, and also helped to harness and ultimately change the weaknesses to strengths (high acidity helps to balance out sweetness. Botrytis, when clean, can give added dimension and flavor to wine. Cultured yeasts can add bouquet and aroma that play well with Rieslings pure fruit and mineral flavors.)
Alsace stayed its course for a while, but in time many of the producers have come to embrace the same changes that Germany did earlier (and in turn, there are German producers who are returning to a more traditional approach in the cellars.) So the line has become blurred as of late especially as Germany has been making more dry Riesling.
I can say with certainty though, that there isn’t a single producer in Germany who would like his wines to be called Alsatian-Styled, just as a Mosel producer wouldn’t want his wines to be called Pfalz-styled or vice versa.
Cheers,
Bill
Wein schenkt Freude
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