By Rose Murray Brown MW    Published in The Scotsman 17 June 2017

If you like dry white wines with zesty ripeness and mouthwatering acidity, it is time to discover Germany’s wonderful dry Rieslings – which make superb summer wines.

Forget the old gothic labels and over-sweet watery German wines of old, the modern dry German Rieslings are whistle-clean, minerally with a razor-sharp crispness.  German winemakers are also making an effort to make their labels easier to read with clearer memorable front labels, with all the vital details required by German bureaucracy on the back.

The new generation of German winemakers have worked in New Zealand, California, Australia and South Africa – and returned home to their old family estates in the Mosel and Rhine, with an understanding of the dry Riesling competition.  Key figures to watch are Richard Bocking and Axel Pauly in Mosel, Eva Fricke in Rheingau and Jochen Dreissigacker in Rheinhessen.

Many of the wines in our tasting came from the superb 2015 vintage with its ripe fruits and balancing acidity.  2016 was a good, but small yielding, vintage; trickier for winemakers with a very wet early summer, saved only by a dry autumn.

All wines below are in the ‘dry’ or ‘off-dry’ category so can be easily quaffed as aperitifs on their own, with summer salads, grilled fish or lightly spiced Asian dishes.

MOSEL

Riesling 2015 Richard Bocking (10.5%; £17.95 Swig wine merchants www.swig.co.uk)   STAR BUY
A clear winner in our tasting for its mouthwatering appeal and balance.  Starts well with enticing lychees and white flower aroma, succulent ripe apple and pear flavours, very light spritz refreshing the tongue, finishing long with a minerally edge.  From C15 Mosel estate run by Richard Bocking, this gorgeous ‘dry’ Riesling was my top choice.  Drink now or cellar for a few years to develop its honeyed flavours.

Wittlicher Riesling on Slate Kabinett Feinherb 2015 Losen-Bockstranz (10%; £10.99; Virgin Wines www.virginwines.co.uk)
If you see Feinherb on a Mosel Riesling label, it means ‘off-dry’ with a touch of sweetness.  This floral Riesling has delicate fruits and a sharp-sweet flavour made by C16 old family firm in the heart of the Mosel valley.  Light and delicate with typical floral hints and honeyed sweet notes for drinking now; lacks depth of fruit and concentration for cellaring.

Generations Riesling Feinherb 2015 Axel Pauly (10.5%; £14.99 Buon Vino; Henderson Wines, Edinburgh; Valhallas Goat, Glasgow;; www.thewinereserve.co.uk; www.thedrinkshop.com)   STAR BUY
Another finely judged Feinherb (off-dry) Riesling from the steep Lieser vineyards with its cool grey blue slate.  Up-and-coming winemaker Axel Pauly trained in California and New Zealand; this wine has ripe full fruits which work well against the vibrant natural acid.  A tangy zesty mouthfiller.   

Dry Riesling 2015 Peter & Ulrich Griebeler (12%; £10.99/£12.99 Majestic Wine www.majesticwine.co.uk)
The driest Mosel Riesling in our tasting made by brothers Peter and Ulrich Griebeler.  Tasters enjoyed the appealing ripe apples, limey fruits and stoney character.  Well balanced ripe fruit and mouthwatering acidity.  It scored highly with tasters for its ‘value’ too.      

MITTELRHEIN

Riesling Devon ‘S’ 2015 Toni Jost (12%; £13.95 www.thewinesociety.com)
Flinty finely-etched dry Riesling from the narrow valleys of the little-known Mittelrhein region, north of Mosel and Rheingau.  Toni Jost is based near the attractive town of Bacharach where Devonian soils give wines a sharp slately edge.  Enough fruit concentration for bottle maturity to develop those honeyed notes even more.

RHEINHESSEN

Organic Estate Riesling Trocken 2016 Dreissigacker (12%; £13.50 The Secret Cellar; The Beehive; The Cave; Drinkmonger; Cornelius Wines, Edinburgh; Woodwinters, Edinburgh & Bridge of Allan; Valvona & Crolla, Edinburgh; Aitken Wines, Dundee)  STAR BUY
A very popular choice from our tasters (pictured above) who called it ‘a real winner’.  A great combination of minerality, racy acidity and succulent ripeness – very well judged.  Interestingly this Bechtheim-based winemaker Jochen Dreissigacker scored very highly in our German tasting last year with his 2014 vintage.  He has been causing a stir in Germany and abroad for the quality of his wines from organically grown, low yielding vines. 

Riesling Trocken 2016 Stefan Winter (12%; £16.95 Swig wine merchants www.swig.co.uk)
This was the spritziest wine in the tasting – certainly a Riesling with youthful exuberance.  Tasters found it ‘extremely dry’ with limey grapefruit flavours finishing with a sharp minerally edge.  Popular with those who liked very dry limey Rieslings.

RHEINPFALZ

Riesling Trocken 2016 Burklin Wolf (12%; £10.95 www.thewinesociety.com)
Expect a slightly riper fruit style from warmer Pfalz region.  This has great potential, but still tasting a touch young with crunchy green apple and grapefruit notes.  Zippy and fresh; might be better with more bottle age.

Durkheimer Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2016 Darting Estate (12.5%; £10.50 Marks & Spencer)
This Kabinett’s tutti-frutti sweetness appealed to those drinkers who normally drank riper New World Rieslings.  It may be a Trocken, but it has a honeyed lychee sweetness, succulent ripe fruits from the warmer Pfalz, but still underpinned with a fine acidity.  Touch sweeter than others in our tasting.  Good value too.

Kallstadter Saumagen Stepp ‘S’ Riesling 2015 Gerd Stepp (13%; £15 Marks & Spencer)
Rich loamy loess soils and Pfalz’s warmer temperatures give this Riesling richer peachier fruits, fuller mouthfeel in an off-dry style.  Tasters thought this would make a better food wine – serve with seared tuna or shellfish.

Join Rose’s South West France wine & charcuterie tasting on 6 July in Edinburgh £42 www.rosemurraybrown.com