Does Riesling ...

Sounds like the winery was missing a catalytic converter. ;-)

The diesel odour I have always found in wines that showed all signs of excessive yields, somehow I find that when a young riesling is all dieselly it is lacking in jsut about anything else. There are some rieslings of the noble kind that seem to develop a more subtle petrol aroma with long aging (over 10 years), along with a zillion other good smells.

Some swedish humour for you Nils.

I still have some late harvest Rieslings from California in the 1970s. One has about 30% residual sugar. Most of these came from under 100 miles from Napa or Napa itself. I don't know the details of geology for the various regions, but slate on important vineyards is not something that I have ever seen mentioned. A moderate amount of clean petrol shows in most of these wines along with much else. Then I have tasted a few Rieslings with what I term dirty petrol character which remind you of sulfur somewhat, just as do crude oils from certain regions of the world.

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"Nils Gustaf Lindgren" asked of the collective wisdom of the group ....

Quite a few of the dry Rieslings from South Australia develop that character - and no slate wharsoever in the growing environment.

Have also found petrol / kerosene in NZ rieslings, particularly from Waipara and Marlborough (no slate, just riverbed pebbles!) with a few years of age.

While I often get petrol from Mosel wines that are probably from slate- situated vineyards, I've gotten it from plenty of Alsace wines (including but not only wines from Brand- I'm pretty sure most Alsace vineyards are primarily situated on granite, with some limestone, gneiss, etc). As to Mike's assertion petrol is from overcropping, I've gotten petrol from Clos Ste Hune, Zind-Humbrecht Brand, Maximum Grunhauser, and Grosset Polish Hill - none of which would make my short list of industrial plonk producers (even if stylistically I may not love the ZH).

LOL! Cheers

Nils

You might like to check out this thread:

My experience exactly. Most HAVE been grown in slate-soils. Now, I've had a few New World examples that had touches of petrol, but I do not know the vineyards, or the soil. Does that count as a "maybe?"

Hunt

"Hunt" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@news2.newsguy.com...

The question is whether the petroleum note is specific to slate. Any Riesling WITH petroleum from a soil that is NON-slate is an indication that it is not. Provided, of course, petroleum has not been added as an afterthought (oh, those naughty, naughty wine makers). Cheers Nils Gustaf

Nils,

Do I *smell* a conspiricy amongst Riesling producers????? "Hey, just add a shot of #2 diesel to the cask... "

Hunt

Or how about filtering the wine through ground slate with perhaps a bit of flint added for fire and complexity :-) .

"cwdjrxyz" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@b75g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

No, flint, that would be Sauvignon Blanc from Pouilly. Keep up the good work, though!

Cheers

Nils

IMHO the petroleum nose is not linked to slate, granite or any other type of soil, but appears if your Riesling has been cellared over a number of years.

Yves

"Yves" in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.vo.lu :

That is my experience too, FWIW. That it is a character of the grape and bottle age.

-- Max

We have just opened a biodynamic procedure like wood chips in lieu of oak. Its called "Slate Be Us" which adds elements from your favourite soil to any wine. contact us on

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