Riesling --

a gracious, giving German grape

A workhorse variety that needs little polishing in the cellar, riesling may well be the most underrated of the world's white wine grapes.

Often labeled Johannisberg or white riesling -- its two dominant aliases -- the classic, cool climate German varietal is at its best in Germany's renowned Rhine and Mosel River valleys where it produces an array of wines ranging from bone dry to decadently sweet.

Riesling's most important attribute is that it combines high natural acidity with tremendous fruit concentration, in both aroma and flavor. As a result, it can produce low alcohol wines of great character at every level of residual sweetness -- wines, for the most part, with incredible aging ability. Riesling's other hallmark is its beautifully expressive bouquet, which suggests the fragrance of everything from honeysuckle blossoms to rose petals, as well as the inviting smell of green apples.

The one problem with riesling, from the consumer's point of view, is that it is made in a bewildering array of styles and gradations of sweetness, at least in Germany -- a problem compounded by the hard-to-fathom German wine labels, which, for the uninitiated, are a mishmash of hard-to-pronounce appellation, producer, vineyard and style names. As a result, the appreciation of riesling by American consumers has been limited.

Whether it's the everyday riesling -- noted as "kabinett" on the label -- or the exceptional full, rich flavors of a late harvest "sptlese," riesling is a versatile food wine that complements everything from seafood to spicy Asian fare, light poultry recipes to rich pork and sausage dishes.

The most expensive wines made from riesling are late harvest dessert wines, produced by letting the grapes hang on the vines well past normal picking time. Through evaporation caused by the fungus botrytis cinerea ("noble rot") or by freezing, as in the case of ice wine (in German, Eiswein), water is removed and the resulting wine offers profoundly richer layers on the palate. These concentrated wines have more sugar (in extreme cases hundreds of grams per liter), more acid (to give balance to all the sugar) and more flavors. Due to its concentration, late-harvest riesling is among the longest-lived of all wines.

Enthusiastic about the variety because of its versatility, sommelier Rob Ortiz says "riesling is honest. How many wines can you say that about?"

Ortiz, a native of Santa Fe, loves to pair the dishes of executive chef Peter Halikas with more than two dozen rieslings he has on the wine list at Halikas' popular downtown Napa restaurant, N.V.

Talking about the grape's diversity while tasting a few choice rieslings recently, Ortiz pointed out that rieslings of all price and richness work well with food. The every day, or kabinett, riesling works well as an apertif with oysters. "It cuts through the oyster's richness," he adds.

"A (late harvest) sptlese pairs beautifully with the quail we serve at N.V., and the fuller, rich auslese is ideal for foie gras. In the dessert category, the (botrytisized) beerenauslese is the perfect complement for cheese. And when it comes to trockenbeerenauslese, well, that's dessert in a glass -- I'd drink it by itself."

Halikas appreciates the "crisp, refreshing" qualities of low alcohol German rieslings. "Wines that have good acidity and complexity complement all types of food," he notes. "California winemakers can take a lesson from the Germans in "trying not to make extracted, high alcohol wines."

Locally, Halikas pointed out, "Smith-Madrone is producing this kind of riesling. When Rob and I tasted (rieslings) blind, we both thought the Smith-Madrone was from Germany." N.V. doesn't have a Smith-Madrone riesling on its wine list at the moment. But I bet it will soon.

Meanwhile, Ortiz and I tasted some outstanding German rieslings that are available now -- not only on the N.V. wine list but in retail wine shops coast to coast. Some of these wines are available at the restaurant on a flight of three rieslings, or available by the glass, just in case you're in the mood for a taste of riesling and don't want to purchase a full bottle.

Gunterloch 2005 Dry Riesling ($19): From low-lying vineyards around Nackenheim in Germany's Rheinhessen, this agreeable everyday wine is a model for the varietal -- great, clean acidity, nice mineral notes, stonefruit (apricot/peach) flavors, adding a bit of citrus on both entry and finish. High acid, low alcohol (12 percent, in this case) wines go so well with Asian flavors, like those found in N.V.'s five spice marinated quail salad with fried shallots. We enjoyed this offering with the quail dish because it tamed the saltiness in the five spice and soy marinade.

Reinhold Haart 2003 Piesporter Goldtrpfchen Riesling Sptlese ($37): From the oldest wine family in Piesport, a town on the Mosel River in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer wine region, this late harvest riesling might be big and fat, but it has only 7.5 percent alcohol. Coming from the very hot 2003 vintage, this late harvest wine might be rated auslese in any other vintage. Not overpoweringly sweet, this is a wine to pair with a fatty dish, such as the restaurant's pork belly with poached Anjou pear and orange marmalade. The honey and peach flavors are mouthwatering, with the fatty pork belly cutting the acid by a third. It works well, too, with the pear, in that it enhances the fruit flavors in the glass. This one's a lipsmacker.

Gunter Knstler 2004 Stielweg "Old Vines" Riesling ($38): Grapes harvested from a 50-year-old vineyard in the Rheingau town of Hochheim have produced this bright, concentrated, elegant wine. Layers of fruit and acid blend and melt on the mid-palate. Even though the vines are planted in loam, there's that all-too-familiar slate/mineral nose associated with this German grape variety, which, in the glass, tastes of sun-ripened apricots and those tiny yellow plums the Germans call zwetschgen. Tasted with a sake-glazed cod fillet, this low alcohol (12.5 percent) riesling provided added complexity to one of the chef's best dishes.

J.J. Prm 1997 Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese ($39): Now we're beginning to see how well good riesling ages. An incredibly ripe wine offering layers and layers of fruit on the palate, this late harvest wine is a treasure. It shows the slate and petrol nose of classic rieslings as well as its Mosel-Saar-Ruwer pedigree. At only 7.5 percent alcohol, this is a wine that keeps giving and giving. The fruit -- peaches and gooseberries with a dollop of honey -- goes on forever. A clean, compact wine with incredible acid. If you can find it for under $40, grab a few bottles. Then drink one and cellar the rest. It can only get better.

Weingut Wegeler 1993 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese ($35): From a wine family that dates to the mid-1800s, this very ripe, concentrated late harvest wine is the handiwork of the fourth generation cellar team in Bernkastel. The firm, fruity acid backbone gives way to white peaches and honeysuckle in the mouth. This is a complete wine in that all of the components have married beautifully into a rich, relatively "trocken" treasure. Yes, another treasure.

A few last-minute riesling thoughts: If you see gray riesling on the label, give it a try but know that it's an entirely different wine and not a true riesling. When looking for a dry style of riesling, the label's buzz words for dry will be dry or trocken ("dry" in German). If a sweeter riesling is on your list, then you will be looking for auslese on the bottle's label.