Riesling

Riesling is of clear Germanic origin, with the first unambiguous written reference dating to 1435, in a cellar account from Rüsselsheim on the edge of the Rheingau. DNA fingerprinting by Ferdinand Regner later showed that one of its parents is Gouais Blanc, the humble medieval peasant grape (known in Germany as Weißer Heunisch) that also sired Chardonnay and Gamay; the other parent is a cross between Traminer (Savagnin) and a wild vine, and is not itself a grape in this collection. It became closely bound to Germany's steep, slate-soiled river valleys — the Mosel, Rheingau, and Rheinhessen — where its piercing natural acidity lets winemakers balance an extraordinary spectrum of styles, from bone-dry "Trocken" wines to intensely sweet dessert wines made from botrytis-affected or naturally frozen grapes (Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, and Eiswein).

By the 19th century, top German Rieslings ranked among the most prestigious and expensive white wines in the world, at times outpricing top Bordeaux. The grape's reputation suffered a long mid-to-late 20th-century decline, closely tied to the flood of cheap, mass-market sweet blends like Liebfraumilch that traded on the Riesling name without its quality, a reputation from which serious Riesling producers have spent decades carefully rebuilding critical respect.