There was a time when the rieslings bought in Australia were not actually rieslings.
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The Hunter Valley riesling, for example, was actually a sémillon. And when you realise that riesling grapes grow in cold climates, it probably should have been obvious that the warmer wine region could never have had that varietal coming out of its vineyards. But at that time, everything that wasn't a white wine, tended to be marketed, in Australia at least, as riesling or a white burgundy.
Even the wines coming out of Germany - the world's largest producer of riesling - weren't necessarily rieslings. And to their credit, the bottles never claimed to be.
When German wine companies realised they had a "captive audience" in the Allied soldiers that were in the country following World War II - who largely didn't like the riesling - they looked for a solution. That came in the form of gewurztraminer.
"Those lines then appeared in Australia and New Zealand and other parts of the world, in the late 1960s, early 1970s, under labels like Blue Nun and Black Tower," Canberra International Riesling Challenge secretariat Richard Hart says.
"And most of them weren't riesling, and the Germans didn't ever say they were riesling. But we interpreted them as being riesling. And they were sweet wines, and therefore, everybody of that generation thinks riesling is a sweet wine. And yes it can be, but it's usually quite dry."
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The same marketing approach happened with other, Australian, winemakers. That's not to say that there wasn't actual rieslings on the market. Hart says it just became a matter of "you could call anything, anything and so people did". Which in turn, damaged the reputation of any true rieslings.
That continued until regulations came in to ensure that any riesling - or other varietal for that matter - met a certain percentage of that wine variety. And then came repairing riesling's reputational damage.
"They set up the Riesling Challenge with the intention of doing two things," Hart says.
"One, improving the quality of riesling that was available to the public - and that's the wine show itself. But the second thing is to improve consumers' understanding and appreciation of riesling - so you can tell a good one from a bad one - and just start to overcome some of the prejudices which had developed about riesling."
The Riesling Challenge was - until relatively recently - the only single variety wine show in the country. And it is still the largest wine show in the southern hemisphere. This year - which Hart says is a small year due to the cost of international freight prices - sees 370 wines go head to head.
"Ken Helm, who is one of the founders, says doing well at the Riesling Challenge is like doing well at the Melbourne Cup, not the Yass races," Hart says.
"If you go to a conventional wine show, it might have 70 rieslings. But in a small year, like this one, we will have 370. And that's all the judges are doing - just tasting rieslings."
There are a couple of other differences between the challenge and other wine shows. The first being that a winery doesn't need to have 100,000 cases of a wine to enter. Rather they just need to have the wine available commercially at one other location, aside from their cellar door. This is mainly because there aren't many wineries in Australia that have 100,000 cases of riesling.
The other thing is the way the Riesling Challenge scores. While other shows will award gold, silver and bronze medals - based on the wine's score, rather than a first, second and third placing - the challenge changes the wording around the awards.
The challenge sees a commended award given to those which score between 85 and 89, a premium award is given at 90 to 92, those that score 93 to 94 are given excellent, and elite is 95 and above.
"Basically what happens is, of course, you've got maybe 15 per cent of wines that go over 95 points. And we call that an elite wine, not gold," Hart says.
"The trouble we found was that most people think that a bronze wine is third class ... but it's actually a well-made wine of good quality. That's what you're trying to achieve as a winemaker. That's why we moved away from calling it bronze, silver or gold."
- The Canberra International Riesling Challenge is on October 9-14 at Albert Hall.
- Head along on October 14 at 11am, pick up your result catalogue and Riedel tasting glass, and taste your way around this year's competitors. Tickets from Trybooking.
Three things you need to know about riesling
1. It is primarily a dry wine
It's a common misconception that riesling is a sweet wine.
While there are certainly sweet variants - including ice wine from Germany, which sees the grapes freeze on the vine, to remove the water from the fruit and increase the sugar content - primarily it is a dry wine.
"It has high levels of tartaric acid which makes it a) last a long time, and b) that's what makes those dry wines which we love," Canberra International Riesling Challenge secretariat Richard Hart says.
2. Don't drink it too cold
When it comes to serving riesling, it's a little bit like Goldilocks. Not too hot, not too cold - just right.
And in this instance, Hart says just right is about 12 degrees.
So, when you think about fridges being about one or two degrees, it's best to let your wine sit and warm up for a while before pouring a glass. This way, all of the wine's flavours will come out to play.
3. Try it with cheese
Want to try a sweet riesling? In that case, Hart says don't just automatically pair it with dessert.
His tip? Blue cheese is the way to go.
"They are brilliant with blue cheese. Absolutely brilliant," Hart says.
"So they're an aperitif as well as a dessert wine - you can have them at either end of the meal.
"The high acidity and the high sugar combine really well with those cheeses. And it's a highly floral wine so it also goes well with Asian food, fish, and those sorts of things."
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