Latest news with #riesling
Telegraph
11-07-2025
- General
- Telegraph
How German wines shook off their 1970s stigma – and the best ones to try
If you ask the wine trade what they drink that no one else does, they always bang on about the same two 'good value' things: dry sherry and riesling, especially German riesling. It's been like this for decades. Roughly every five years a comeback or 'revolution' is declared for one or other drink (sometimes both) but very little happens. I can see why dry sherry, with its intense and particular flavours, might be an acquired taste. German riesling, however, fits perfectly with all the current drinking trends: lower alcohol (tick), lighter non-oaky wines (tick), citrussy aperitif styles (tick), and a touch of sweetness (many who think they don't like sweetness actually do; sugar is often hidden, so that's another tick). Then there is the way we eat. I'm old enough to remember the 1970s and 80s when German wine was really popular in the UK, and meals often included pastry and mince, suet and stews, and Anglo-style spaghetti bolognese, all of which welcomed a slightly rough country French or Eastern European red to wash it down. Now we are more Ottolenghi than Atora, and a more plant-based dinner rota might include poke bowls, chilli noodles or Middle Eastern mezze. Much of this matches well with the freshness of German wines, especially considering that off-dry wines complement fruity salads, sweet dressings or the heat of chilli. Unfortunately, we also carry an ancestral memory of the German wine exported in the 70s and 80s, much of which consisted of medium-sweet wines produced in high volumes rather than to high quality standards, often made from uninspiring, damp- and cold-resistant workhorse varieties such as müller-thurgau. Times have changed. Germany, like many other wine-producing regions, has benefited from improvements in winery technology. It has also shifted its focus away from fruity, sweet liebfraumilch blends to concentrate more on its beautiful, expressive pinot noir (spätburgunder) and pure riesling. Germany is the world's third largest producer of pinot noir, after France and the US, and its fine-boned spätburgunder now has an ardent following among fine wine lovers willing to splash out £50 a bottle. There are some decent supermarket entry-level versions, too. Riesling has always had an appreciative audience, just, in my view, not a big enough one. Now should be its moment. Take Blueprint Dry German Riesling 2024, Nahe, Germany (11%, Waitrose, £7.50). This is a light, bright white with pinpricks of effervescence that drinks a bit like vinho verde, but with a sour lime and mineral twist. It isn't bone dry, but at 7.8g per litre of residual sugar, I'd call it off-dry, with a sweetness level that sits comfortably in the mid-range of the vinho verde scale. Vinho verde is hugely popular and prices have risen accordingly, so the smart money would go for this instead. Blueprint Dry German Riesling 2024, £7.50, Waitrose Then there are the slightly sweeter rieslings, with notes of nectarine cut through by vibrant lime juice and lime blossom. These wines are as exhilarating as they are hedonistic, with the lightness of a spritz and the succulence of stone fruit. I made Madhur Jaffrey's murgh boti – chicken kebabs – to go with an Ernst Loosen riesling, which turned out to be an excellent match. Loosen supplies most of the supermarkets and his wines are reliably pristine and good value. As ever, if you'd like to branch out further, the indies are ready for you, and German specialist The WineBarn offers taster cases if you're not sure where to start. German wines to try
Telegraph
30-06-2025
- Telegraph
The unsung European wine regions where holidays are half the price of Burgundy
A road trip through French wine country was once a leisurely, care-free affair, featuring spontaneous stops at some of the best chateaux in the country. Nowadays it's a budgetary and logistical exercise, with days of pre-planning about where you can actually afford to buy something, and which caves will deign to even open their doors to you (in Burgundy, the answer to both is: fewer than you think). Luckily, if you look farther east, Europe still has plenty of lesser-heralded wine regions where vignerons will welcome you with open arms (and tiny bills). Na zdraví to that! Here are three of the best for super vintages, charming accommodation and low prices. South Moravia, Czech Republic Czechs used to joke that they consume so much beer because it's cheaper than water. But in South Moravia – the premier cru of Czech vine-growing regions – the wine is just as affordable. Reasonable local bottles start from around £2, and you don't need to spend much more than £8 for a great one. You could spend weeks driving from vineyard to vineyard meeting passionate winemakers and tasting superb rieslings, sauvignon blancs and grüner veltliners that would make vignerons in Alsace, Mosel and the Loire green with envy – although there are plenty of lesser-known local varieties to explore too. The region has oodles of charm. In villages such as Vrbice and Petrov, you can see Moravia's traditional stone cellars, which bury their bottoms into verdant mounds in a Hobbit-ish style that could be straight out of Tolkien. Petrov's Plže cellars are also painted in folk patterns. More recently, trendy young architects have been descending on the region to zhuzh-up historic family farms into Pritzker Prize-worthy wineries. One of these, Lahofer, is the ideal place to start your Moravian adventure. Designed by local architects Chybik + Kristof, its wave structure crests above a stylish concrete-and-glass tasting room before crashing down towards the vines. The curl of the wave creates an outdoor amphitheatre where the winery hosts dozens of concerts throughout summer. Tastings are available on request, or you can simply enjoy a glass at the bar (from 80 CZK/£2.76). The winery is a 10-minute drive from Znojmo, a charming cobbled town stuffed with historic buildings – from a 900-year-old Romanesque rotunda to Baroque palaces and Gothic churches. Here you can find Enotéka, a former brewery heating room. Owned by the family behind Lahofer, it has been converted by the same architects into a swish, airy bar where you can try 120 different wines from the surrounding region by the glass from self-dispensing machines. The windows perfectly frame the 700-year-old church. From just £53 per night (including breakfast), you can stay in a gorgeous converted bakery, Stará Pekárna, which dates back to the 13th century. It sits in the centre of Znojmo and owners Valerie and David Kozelští have completely white-washed the ancient walls and vaults to give a fresh, modern feel. Ryanair flies from Stansted to Brno. Berat, Albania Imagine the city of Bath but built by the Ottomans and surrounded by rolling vine-clad hills. That's Berat in Albania. This Unesco-listed city has that perfect jewel-like quality of Bath with its cascade of white mansions – their wooden balconies and thousands of windows clinging to the hillside. But just visiting the historic centre and not venturing out into the surrounding vineyards means you miss out on the region's best-kept secrets. These vineyards are home to some of Albania's best wines, many made with indigenous grapes you can't find anywhere else, such as Pulës (which makes dry white wines that sing with flowers and orchard fruits) and Debinë e Zezë (think: rich earthy blackberries). While Berat's cobbled streets are usually packed with tourists, you can enjoy the neat rows of vines at top wineries like Çobo all to yourself. Many vineyards also offer accommodation. At Pupa Winery, a 20-minute drive from Berat, you can stay in an Ottoman-style mansion, with its terracotta-tiled roof and giant slabs of poplar wood that seem to grow organically out of the white walls. Many of the rooms have balconies so you can wake up to views over the vines. Thankfully prices aren't growing as well as the grapes. Double rooms cost from £67 per night, including breakfast, and in the restaurant you can fill yourself up on home-made dishes from the Pupa family farm, such as cheesy pumpkin bake, stuffed peppers and flaky burek pastry, for less than £10. Ryanair (from Stansted) and British Airways (from Heathrow) fly to Tirana. Balaton, Hungary Just a few centuries ago, Hungarian wines were being drunk by all the royal courts of Europe. Today, internationally at least, it's known only for the syrupy ambrosia that is Tokaji dessert wine. But a trip to the wine regions around Balaton, Hungary's largest lake, will reveal the incredible diversity that this stereotype belies. Start your trip in Badacsony, which sits on the lake's shore and can be reached by direct train from Budapest in less than three hours. Hableány is a dreamy lunch spot just by the lake's edge. Part winery, part restaurant, you can come for a tour, buy a bottle or just enjoy a glass with lunch. The restaurant does elegant takes on local classics, such as crispy pike perch and smoked pork knuckle with sauerkraut. It's one of the more upmarket restaurants around, yet even here you can get a main for about £10. Lake Balaton is where countless Hungarians escape during the sweltering summer months, so you can enjoy views over hundreds of yachts and kayaks bobbing on its waters. In Badascony, vines grow on extinct volcanoes, resulting in stony, minerally whites that could rival any Chablis. Try them at Villa Tolnay, one of the best wineries in the region. For a longer trip, venture out into Somló, about 50 minutes' drive away, which has a quieter, more agricultural feel. It's also home to arguably Hungary's best sparkling wine house – Kreinbacher Estate, which makes bubbles to compete with Champagne. The winery has a suite of luxury hotel rooms, currently undergoing renovation and set to reopen with a new wellness area soon. For something a bit more rustic, you can stay at Somló Kolonics Kúria, a winery and guesthouse with double rooms from £81. The simple folksy décor makes you feel like you're staying in the family's own cottage, and there are free bicycles on offer to explore the area.
Telegraph
25-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
The best lower-alcohol wines to help you avoid a hangover
This bank holiday weekend, you may well have parties, barbecues or family get-togethers planned. Which, for wine drinkers, could lead to a potential pitfall on Tuesday when the alarm clock calls – a cracking hangover. It's a mistake to only consider volume when drinking wine – yes, obviously it's a good idea to switch from 250ml glassfuls to 175ml or, better, 125ml, and overall imbibe less, but if your wine is a stonking great shiraz or richly ripe chardonnay at, say 14.5% abv, the units of alcohol still quickly add up. So if you're not going full no-alc, it's wise to pick wines which are naturally lower in alcohol as well – the level will always be displayed on the label, front or back, and it can come as quite a surprise to see how widely this varies. Skip to: Wines made in cooler climates often come in at lower levels, as the grapes often don't get as ripe and therefore produce less sugar in the juice to turn into alcohol. In search of lower abvs, look to cool regions such as Germany's Mosel, northern Portugal's Vinho Verde, France's Loire Valley and England to tease out some lighter styles (in fizz, the lightest is usually north-east Italy's prosecco). Some grape varieties naturally produce lower levels of alcohol, too – riesling holds sway here. Then there are winemaking and viticultural techniques which help achieve alcohol levels sitting nicely between 5-11% abv. In New Zealand's Marlborough, for example, experiments to make naturally lower alcohol levels are proving successful; Forrest Wines' The Doctors' range of sauvignon blanc, riesling and pinot noir is produced using precision leaf-plucking in the vineyard, prompting grapes to ripen with plenty of flavour but lower sugar levels. Meanwhile Yealands' Nat Christensen, who makes the Sainsbury's NZ wine below, says she 'selects blocks of vines which show good early flavour development and balance to harvest earlier to achieve the desired lower alcohol levels'. In other cases, the fermentation is arrested, usually by chilling, so the alcohol level doesn't rise any further. That can usually mean there is more sugar left in the wine. So be careful when thinking about calories – lower alcohol means fewer of them in your glass, but higher sweetness clearly doesn't. I've got dry, medium and sweet wine recommendations below – and at the risk of sounding school-marmy, to avoid a Bank Holiday hangover you will still have to moderate your intake of even these lighter-weight wines. Why you can trust us Susy is an award-winning wine and drinks writer, presenter and broadcaster who started her career at the Which? Wine Guide. She is a long-standing correspondent for The Telegraph. When not writing, she is an experienced judge and panel chair at UK wine competitions.
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
Here comes summer: reasons to love riesling
I've been drinking a lot of riesling lately. There is, naturally, quite a bit of variety in a drinks writer's liquid diet, so to have the same thing twice in one week is a sure indication of a fascination developing, or of a habit forming. There's not much psychoanalysis required as to why that might be the case: the sun is out and, by the time this column comes out, it will (hopefully) be here to stay. And, for that, I simply must have a glass of white wine in my hand. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Or maybe I need to dig a bit deeper. Why riesling specifically? I like my riesling how all the other freaks do – namely when it tastes as little like wine as possible. When petrol and wax abound on the nose. And with an acidity that slaps you round the face a little, as well as generous fruit that soothes. Riesling is a wine that feels like a meal. And, just maybe, after a haggard winter marked by comforting reds and weighted blankets, I'm in the mood to be challenged and excited again. It's because of these peculiar, acquired-taste notes that riesling is so often a grape for the wine nerds, yes, but that's also why I'm so pleased it's so easy to pick up in supermarkets and wine shops alike. The kinds of riesling you'll most likely find in the supermarket are German and dry, though there is also plenty to discover from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Alsace. They tend to be labelled by variety only, however, so if you want to be sure of the sweetness levels, make sure you check the label to know what to expect. In the wine classification of prädikatswein, the lightest dry German rieslings are described as kabinett-style: that is, bright and with low residual sugar. These are usually appley, sprightly things that you can drink without overthinking, and are the sort of riesling to serve to someone who needs convincing, or who doesn't think a nose pull of petrol is the most pleasurable thing on Earth. Yet. Moving up the scale, we have spätlese (literally, 'late harvest'), for which the grapes are picked at least a week after the regular harvest, so have more time to ripen and have a higher sugar content. They also tend to be fleshier, and are certainly the least intense of the sweeter rieslings. You may also come across riesling marked auslese, meaning selected harvest wines that can be even riper than spätlese, but not always. Sweeter, off-dry riesling (wherever it's from) is the firm foil to the supposition that sweetness = poor quality. These wines can be intriguing, poised, and the best are kept in check with a fine acidity. Confront yourself. Embrace the sweetness. Dr L Grey Slate Riesling £10 Waitrose, 10.5%. Named after the Mosel's terrain, this is clean, crisp and mineral. Moselland Riesling Spätlese 2023 £11.40 Tanners Wine Merchants, 14%. A little fuller, and made from late-harvested grapes. Like fruit dipped in honey. Tin Shed Wild Bunch Riesling 2023 £24 Good Wine Good People, 12.4%. A great year for Australia's Eden Valley riesling, and this one's bright and vivacious. Mont Gras Handcrafted Bío Bío Riesling 2020 £13.50 The Wine Society, 13%. A Chilean sweet riesling for aromatic dishes.
