Dry white

Pfalz Riesling

Robe — Pale to deep gold

  • peach
  • apricot
  • lime
  • honeysuckle
  • flint
Palate
Riper and rounder than the Mosel — often powerful and dry
Ageing
5–20 years
Serving
10–12 °C

In Germany's warm, sunny Pfalz, Riesling ripens fuller and rounder than in the cool Mosel, giving powerful, mostly dry wines of peach and apricot with a firm mineral spine. The grand villages of the Mittelhaardt — Forst, Deidesheim, Wachenheim — hold some of the country's most celebrated dry Riesling sites.

Bolder and more generous than the Mosel's featherweight style, Pfalz Riesling shows the grape at its most substantial and food-friendly. It is the confident, southern face of German Riesling.

The blend

A typical modern composition

Where it is made

Producers

A few estates working in this style today — a sample, not a ranking

Through time

Indicative presence index, 0–100Origins & Antiquity — 0The Monastic Middle Ages — 25Exploration & the Fortified Age — 40Classifications & the Golden Age — 45Phylloxera & the World Crises — 40The Modern & New World Era — 75Antiquity0500150017001875195075