30,000,000 bottles with Riesling Taste Profile

Got an email newsletter (the first one) from www.drinkriesling.com claiming that there are now more than 30,000,000 bottles of Riesling in the US market.

Not sure if I have mentioned the RTP before now. (Maybe I should do a search!).

So how many bottle of Riesling would there be in the US market? There are only a hand full of wineries in NZ that bother to use the scale, so traction seems to be a problem.

A couple of other questions:
"At the recent Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, which included 218 Rieslings from 16 U.S. states and 6 foreign countries, 38 U.S. wineries from 10 states included the IRF Riesling Taste Profile on their wines. The states were California, Idaho, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin. (Most entries from other countries do not include the taste profile yet due to certain national regulations.)".

What regulations in other countries would preclude adding a little graphic scale to the back label of a bottle of wine? Are there any states that produce Riesling that would have this sort of restriction?

Has anyone here noticed the RTP scale on bottles and do you take any notice of them?

I personally like the idea, but think that it is watered down somewhat when the winemaker can arbitrarily change the scale from what is calculated using the RS/TA/pH figures to make it read whatever they want it to. Or maybe what the accountants want it to read.

What regulations in other countries would preclude adding a little graphic scale to the back label of a bottle of wine?

Paying your dues and becoming a member of the International Riesling Foundation (IRF), I would assume.

Salute

No, this is not a national regulation. Contributions to the International Riesling Foundation (IRF) is on a voluntary basis. There are no rules from the IRF about using the scale on the bottle, as far as I can see. New Zealand, at least, has regulations about what is required to be on the labels (front and back probably), but nothing about what is NOT allowed to be on the label. Excepting saying things like "Wine is good for your health".

http://drinkriesling.com/about/contribution_fom

I am very much in favour of use of a graphic dryness/sweetness scale and not just for Riesling, provided that it is a single international standard.

I know of no law in Europe that would preclude its use, except perhaps in Germany where the maze of existing Prädikat and VDP rules might effectively disallow it. In Alsace there are several producers who use such scales but they are all different and AFAIK none use the IRF scale.

If you look at the members list you would notice some German, Australian, and French producers. (As far as “Riesling Alsace Wine”, I’m not sure if this is a “Council” or “Alliance” type of thing or just all “Riesling Alsace Wine”).
Like Tim, I can’t see the “powers to be” object to a “sweetness scale” that could possible help consumers understand the product they are buying a little better. Looking further on the site I notice that they say the use of the scale is “free” (but they also ask that you become a member).

Salute

If you look at the members list you would notice some German, Australian, and French producers. (As far as “Riesling Alsace Wine”, I’m not sure if this is a “Council” or “Alliance” type of thing or just all “Riesling Alsace Wine”).
Like Tim, I can’t see the “powers to be” object to a “sweetness scale” that could possible help consumers understand the product they are buying a little better. Looking further on the site I notice that they say the use of the scale is “free” (but they also ask that you become a member).

Salute

Re "Riesling Alsace Wine", I followed the link provided on IRF site and got this http://www.vinsalsace.com/en/who-we-are ... t1408.html . It looks like a semi-official body, so it is encouraging if they are taking an interest in this initiative. However, the majority of Alsatian producers still do not display a dryness/sweetness scale.

The best known scale there is the Zind-Humbrecht's "indice" number which takes knowledge to decode (1= dry....5= very sweet) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domaine_Zind-Humbrecht ; Olivier Humbrecht was here a few weeks ago and with hindsight I should have asked him why he does not join the IRF scale because philosophically he obviously has no objection to helping the consumer in this respect. I have seen some Alsatian bottles with a scale which looks like IRF's but I don't know if they use the same definitions. Some Alsatians described as "sec" seem to me on tasting closer to my idea of "demi-sec" .