Riesling Trocken

Swimming across the Rhine was difficult this morning. But, it seemed the shortest way to get across and into Germany. And, there is no better place to experience the many styles of Riesling than on this side of the Rhine.

We're going to be tasting nothing but pradikat Riesling, those of the highest quality. Among the pradikat, the wines are divided into a number of classifications based on the amount of sugar in the must (the juice that contains, the skins, stems, and seeds from the fruit). We start with the dryest of the group -- trocken

 Trocken is the German word for dry. And, although trocken is not technically one of the predikat, we are starting with it. The trocken descriptor is accurate. These wines are acidic, crisp, and bone dry. Often brimming with somewhat tart pear, green apple, white peach, nectarine, faint hints of apricot, and quite restrained grapefruit, our trocken Rieslings are known for expressing the terroir of the area. As we sip, we note the minerality and high granite content in the local soil.

Just how dry must the trocken Riesling be? As they say on social media, it's complicated. It's not just a plain measurement of sugar that is the determinant, it is the relative amount of sugar compared to the acidity of the wine. Most pradikat Riesling are high enough in acidity, however, that they are allowed up to 9 grams of sugar per liter of wine to be labeled trocken. The wines we are tasting today have far less.

We're tasting our Riesling trocken with a number of different foods today. Our favorites that we have settled on are somewhat mild white fish, pork tenderloin in a peach marinade, shrimp cocktail, rotisserie chicken with mild seasonings, and clams on the half shell.

Tomorroow, we move up the sweetness scale and with it, we change foods.


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