We now have incontrovertible evidence that a rising tide does not lift all boats. In the last decade, sales of white wine have risen sharply, even overtaking red-wine consumption in the United States, as the warming world embraces glasses of everything crisp and cool.
But you know what has not really increased in the last decade? Sales of Riesling. Except in China, where Riesling is the hottest new thing, proving that the Chinese may well be on their way to becoming the planet’s most sensible wine consumers.
In this white-wine boom, even Chardonnay sales are up, despite the continued prevalence of the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) movement. But poor Riesling, darling of wine writers, winemakers, and sommeliers the world over, cannot seem to catch a break even in the fairest of conditions.
Acreage and decline
Here in California, the numbers tell a clear story. Plantings of Riesling currently sit at 2,635 acres (1,066 ha) in total, barely up from 2016’s total of 2,607 acres, a number mostly unchanged since 2008.
For many producers, the explanation is simple.
‘As much as I love to drink and make Riesling, I cannot say I have found success in selling it’, says winemaker Nathan Kandler of Precedent Wines and Thomas Fogarty. ‘We are no longer making any, sadly.’
Any serious Riesling zealot will tell you that less than 100 years ago, Riesling was a more precious and valued wine in America than the first growths of Bordeaux. Proof of this claim can be found on mid-century wine lists throughout the country. By way of an example, Stuart Pigott (in his 2014 book Best White Wine on Earth) reports a c 1949 wine list from the Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, which lists the 1937 Château Haut-Brion for $10 and the 1945 Scholls Vollrads Cabinet [sic] for $15.
My, how times have changed.
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Image of Riesling grapes in the hands of Mike Lucia, owner of Cole Ranch Vineyards by Leigh-Ann Beverley.
