More Specific Information on Riesling Labels

According to this article in Decanter, the International Riesling Foundation has proposed that a "taste scale" appear on every bottle of Riesling. This is to help consumers identify whether the wine is sweet, off-dry, dry, and so forth.

Of course, you can tell now – or at least get a general idea – by identifying whether a Riesling is a Kabinett, Spatlese, or Auslese (see my definitions in this post). There is a lot on a German wine label – type, regions, and percentages of residual sugar.

This is part of a move, I believe, to make German wine labels more approachable. Last year, we were quite taken with the inexpensive Clean Slate Riesling. It was the first German bottle I’d encountered with an approachable "graphic" label. It’s one of the reasons we bought it, as we gave several bottles to our non-wine-drinking friends.

This is also part of removing the common misconception that Riesling is just a sweet wine. By specifically calling out how sweet or dry the wine is, the Internal Riesling Foundation hopes to dispel that myth and help grow Riesling sales. (Riesling is currently the fastest growing market of white wines in the US.)

What do you think of the idea of a tasting scale added to bottles of Riesling?

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One Response to “More Specific Information on Riesling Labels”

1. 1WineDude says:

   July 29, 2008 at 10:39 am

   So… they want to put even more info. on a German wine label?
   I barely survived my last encounter with a Riesling label!
   http://1winedude.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-take-on-german-wine-label-and.html