I fever there were a viticultural equivalent of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, it must be Welschriesling. This white variety, widely grown throughout the many countries of its regional domain, Central and Eastern Europe – and now even in volume in China – was for decades billed generally as a grape that made neutral, easy-drinking wine; rather simple and sour, even outright plonky; so much so that it was frequently spritzed with soda water for hot summer day gulping.
At best, it was vinified mainly as a sparkling wine – or a component of; otherwise as a dry, still wine for immediate consumption, rarely lasting more than a year in bottle.
Now, though, Welschriesling is rapidly becoming a wine producer’s darling. Ambitious wine-growers and winemakers have been digging deep to discover its true potential, and discovering that this late-ripening variety with moderate-to-generous acidity optimally reflects the terroir in
