Is it possible to generalize about the differences between Riesling from Alsace, Germany and Austria?
Germany and Alsace are siblings, while Austria is a second cousin. Alsace and the Pfalz, after all, are geographic extensions of each other, lying on different sides of the same range of mountains. Germany and Alsace both have maritime climates, which is to say that their climate is influenced by gulf-stream currents coming off the Atlantic. Austria doesn’t have a maritime climate–it’s continental, with less rainfall. It has different soil too, namely a volcanic derivative (metamorphic/igneous) that contains, among other things, schist, silica, and mica. So there are different terroir parameters. And Austrian Riesling is almost uniformly, absolutely, dry. One cannot depend on Alsace or German Riesling to be dry. You’ve convinced me that I want some Austrian Riesling-but am I going to have trouble finding it in the U.S. if I don’t live on one coast or another? It’s not difficult to find, or at least not difficult on the coasts or in big cities. In the great flyover part of the country
