Report from - The Riesling Experience 2011 ... June 9, 2011
29 Sep 2011- Details
- Category: On the Road with the Grape Guy
Are you experienced? Jimi Hendrix is famous for asking that simple question on a record album – but he was talking about music, here we’re talking wine – Riesling to be exact. With all the events this year surrounding one grape or another, be it Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, it seems that Riesling's gotten lost in the shuffle. Is it because Ontario wineries are trying to foist other grapes into the limelight? Or is Riesling safe in its position in Ontario? It would seem that it's the wineries that don't make Riesling are the ones that want to showcase other varieties, but consider this: Riesling is a variety that is 500 years old and the #1 variety in Niagara. Commercial planting started in Niagara around 1974. Riesling makes up 18.8% of all grapes planted in Ontario and 17.3% of all vinifera … and that leads the charge of grapes planted. And for those interested, the mostly widely planted Riesling clone: 21B, at 70%.
Today Niagara welcomed winemakers and owners from Michigan, Ohio and New York along with Pierre Trimbach from Alsace to speak to the assembled clan of Riesling lovers, and there were a lot.
Pierre Trimbach … (to read about Trimbach, his quotes and comments as well as info about the other regions in attendance click here)
