WTN: Red Riesling

2022 Schlagkamp Roter Riesling (Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer)

Red Riesling? Yes, it's a mutation that has red skins and is known in Germany as Roter Riesling. I heard about it on a Viking river cruise Rhine & Moselle Discovery from Andreas Schlagkamp at his winery* in Cochem on the Mosel where, as part of a Viking excursion, we'd gone for a tasting. The tasting poured Riesling and Ebling and a liquer made from local small red peaches.

So I bought a bottle of the red Riesling, and opened it last night with dinner. Like nearly all dark-skinned grapes, Roter Riesling's juice is clear and this was made as a dry white wine.

Golden yellow colour, not sweet but not piercing dry. There's a rich fullness, and it's perfumed like white flowers, magnolia blossom came to mind.

Would be good to drink on its own, doesn't need food.

Didn't dislike it, but wouldn't make a repeat purchase.


*https://www.schlagkamp-wein.de/#!/en

[David M. Bueker]

Only ever seen a single Roter Riesling in my lifetime. Didn't buy it, but was tempted to.

Interesting. There are a bunch of cases of red grape varieties having mutations that yield white grapes. Pinot noir, which is genetically rather unstable, has had two white-grape mutation events that have become their own varieties: pinot blanc and pinot gris. There was recent (past several decades) mutation yielding white pinot noir grapes in one of the Burgundy grand cru vineyards.

This is the first that I've heard of the reverse happening--a white variety mutation yielding red grapes. But after searching the topic I discovered that pinot blanc is prone to produce red grapes now and then.

-Paul W.

I believe grape varieties are supposed to be red-black, they turn colour when the seeds are ripe as an invitation to wildlife to consume them and spread their seeds. Mutations and crosses have produced non red-black grapes which are propagated by man, but I reckon many of these varieties must still have the red-black gene from an ancestor.

As you say, Pinot is very prone to mutation and as Pinot Blanc is a mutation of Pinot Noir I'm not surprised by a reversion to Noir grapes.

Having seen Pinot Gris grapes growing, I wouldn't call them white grapes as their skins are varying shades of grey/pink

You're right about the normal change in color of grapes. A lot of plants that depend on their fruit being eaten to disperse their seeds do this.

White grapes are the vine equivalent of albinism in humans. There is a genetic mutation that blocks the normal appearance of the red-black anthocyanin pigments. It could be a gene responsible for production of the pigment itself, or it could be one of the genes that triggers the production of the pigment when the fruit is mature.

Albinism of this sort isn't just confined to plant fruit. I had wild pink lady's slipper orchids growing behind my house for a while (alas, they disappeared when tree growth shaded them out). As the name implies, their flowers are normally a deep pink-purple color. One year one of the plants produced white flowers. The year after that there were white and pale-pink flowers as well as the normal deeply colored ones. Classic incomplete dominance of a mutated gene.

-Paul W.

Have read about this but have never had the opportunity to acquire or taste a bottle. Nice find and thanks for the note.