Low-Risk Rieslings

A couple months ago, I attended a seminar on riesling wines. Attendees got to taste rieslings from a number of locations around the world known for making riesling wines. I gained two things from my attendance:

1.) We should all drink more rieslings, especially from Austria (if you can find them).

2.) Folks who keep hearing from wine writers that they should drink more rieslings but are afraid they’re going to be too sweet (the wines, not the wine writers) should grab an Australian riesling.

I was reminded of the seminar recently as I was picnicking poolside with my wife, Eleanore. We were enjoying The Stump Jump Riesling from Australia’s d’Arenberg winery. Eleanore loved the crisp, lemon-lime-green apple flavors. But here’s the part that I believe she really liked: It was BONE DRY. This wine was so dry that if it could it would ask you for a glass of water. It was so completely bereft of sweetness that if you put a single sugar crystal in the bottle it would die of loneliness. We're talking not sweet here. If a movie was made about this wine, it would be called Night of the Living Unsweetness.

Recommending dry rieslings to people (and I’ve been trying for years) is like banging your head on your desk. It’s painful at first, but you keep trying because you think you're going to get somewhere. Ultimately, you lapse into a failure-filled coma, bruised and crestfallen.

At the riesling seminar, the wines from Washington State; Alsace, France; Germany and Austria generally had more depth, complexity, floral qualities and a fruitiness that could be confused for sweetness. I can see where nervously adventurous wine drinkers might pull back from these.

The Aussies were austere, straightforward and just plain fun—a great starting point to appreciate noble riesling wines, which, as I said, we should be drinking more of.

So instead of putting one of those oh-my-gosh, so-boring Australian chards in your cart. Try an Aussie riesling instead. If you can get something better for 10 bucks, I'd like to know.

2008 The Stump Jump Riesling, McLaren Vale, Australia

• $11

• Two Thumbs Up

• Great, fresh, minty, lime-laden aromas—kinda like a mojito. Quite refreshing with tons of crisp lemon, lime and green apple flavors. Way too easy quaff, especially on a hot day.