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The Riesling is considered one of the 'noble' grape varieties for wine making. It can produce wines of high acidity and elegance in very cool growing conditions. Its wines usually show fresh fruit flavours and a zesty character. Riesling has the ability to produce wines that run the gamut from bone dry to very sweet but are usually made in dry of semi-dry styles. It has perfumey aromas with peach and honeysuckle notes and can develop a 'petrol' nose as it ages.
Riesling does best in cool climates and is very resistant to frost. It is planted very widely in the northern European growing regions but is less popular in other areas of the world.
In the right circumstances, some of the finest sweet wines in the world can be made from Riesling that has been affected by Botrytis Cinerea. This mold attacks the skin of the grape and concentrates the sugars in the grape by allowing the water to evaporate. This is especially true in the Moselle and Rhine river valleys of Germany as well as the Alsace region of France. These wines are at the same time: wonderful, rare, expensive and long-lived.
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