Great Wine Values: Relax Riesling
This wine from the Mosel region is a perfect example, with a sweet-tart balance reminiscent of that found in lemonade.
Among Europe's iconic wine styles, German Rieslings are unusual in that they are rarely fully dry. Technically, Germany makes Rieslings at every sugar level imaginable, but the most popular style is neither fully dry nor fully sweet. This affordably priced wine from the Mosel region is a perfect example, with a sweet-tart balance reminiscent of that found in lemonade. Sweet wines tend to be specialties of Europe's coldest wine regions, but not because the grapes grown in these zones are sweeter than usual. In fact, the reverse is true. Fruit grown in cooler climates is often a little less ripe, and therefore contains a little less sugar than that found in warmer, sunnier zones. The reason cold regions have often made sweeter wines is that winemaking yeasts, whose job it is to convert sugar into alcohol, are greatly affected by temperature. In the days before electricity and climate control, cold winters could easily halt the progress of fermentation in unheated wine cellars by sending the yeasts into a form of hibernation until temperatures rose again in the spring. Vintners in northern regions figured out that if they carefully separated the inactive yeasts from the unfinished wine, they could make a delicious wine that had more sweetness and less alcohol than usual, with a lip-smackingly fresh taste of green apples and green grapes like this one.
Relax Riesling. $9.99 (regularly $13.99; sale price through June 24). PLCB Item #9785.
Also available at Joe Canal's in Marlton ($8.99); Kreston Wine & Spirits in Wilmington ($8.99); Total Wine & More in Cherry Hill, Wilmington, and Claymont, Del. ($8.99).