Spotlight on Premium Aromatic White Wines Part 3 Riesling Gewurztraminer and Torrontes

This show was published Friday, December 5, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Chris explore some of the world’s most expressive aromatic white grape varieties. Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Torrontes each bring their own unique personality to the glass, offering powerful aromas, distinctive flavour profiles and a remarkable ability to adapt to place and climate.

Riesling takes centre stage as one of the most versatile and characterful grapes. It thrives in cool to moderate climates and is unusually tolerant of cold winters. Thanks to its late budding, it avoids damage from spring frosts, and depending on the style, ripens from mid- to late season. Riesling expresses itself clearly wherever its grown, showing green fruit and floral notes in cooler areas, and riper citrus and stone fruit in warmer ones. With age it can develop honeyed and toasty aromas, sometimes even the classic petrol character. It is also well known for its ability to produce everything from bone-dry wines to botrytis-affected styles and even ice wine.

Key locations are France, Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand and USA (Finger Lakes, NY).

Germany remains the spiritual home of Riesling and produces styles across the full sweetness spectrum from dry to Trockenbeerebauslese. Regions such as the Mosel, with its steep slate slopes and cool climate, deliver delicate, low-alcohol wines with high acidity and floral, green-fruit flavours. The Rheingau, which benefits from south-facing vineyards and a warmer climate, produces fuller, riper wines that often lean towards peachy fruit and are usually dry. Other key German regions such as the Nahe, Rheinhessen, Pfalz and Baden each offer their own take on Riesling, ranging from balanced, medium-bodied expressions to some of Germany’s ripest and richest styles.

Across the border in Austria, Riesling thrives in regions like the Wachau, where steep terraces and the moderating influence of the Danube help produce dry, concentrated wines with ripe peachy fruit and excellent ageing potential. Also Kamptal and Kremstal. Moving into France, Alsace offers a distinct style entirely its own. Protected by the Vosges mountains, this is one of the driest wine regions in France, and its Rieslings are typically dry, full-bodied and high in acidity, with citrus and stone fruit supported by a firm, stony, almost steel-like character. The best wines tend to come from the best south- and southeast-facing slopes on the foothills of the Vosges.

In the New World, Australia’s Clare Valley and Eden Valley have become renowned for intensely lime-driven Rieslings. The combination of altitude, cool nights and dry conditions gives wines with piercing acidity and the ability to age into complex, toasty examples. Canada’s Niagara Peninsula is another important location, where Riesling is made in dry, off-dry and ice wine styles, aided by the moderating influence of Lake Ontario. New Zealand also contributes increasingly impressive examples from Marlborough and Central Otago, where cool nights and long, dry autumns allow aromatic development without losing freshness. USA in New York's Finger Lakes region.

Gewürztraminer

Gewürztraminer is known for its unmistakable aromas of lychee, rose and sweet baking spice, this pink-skinned grape often produces deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with an oily texture, high alcohol and low to medium acidity. While grown in several countries, the most important region for it is Alsace. Here, under the same rain-shadow conditions that favour Riesling, Gewürztraminer achieves remarkable concentration. As one of Alsace’s four Noble Varieties, it is permitted in Grand Cru, Vendange Tardive and Sélection de Grains Nobles wines, where its natural richness and aromatic intensity truly shine.

The final aromatic white grapes is Torrontés, Argentina’s signature white grape. Intensely aromatic and highly individual, it offers perfumed notes of flowers, stone fruit and melon, usually in a dry, medium-bodied style with moderate acidity. Although grown widely across Argentina, the finest examples often come from the high-altitude vineyards of Cafayate in Salta, where elevations reaching up to 3,000 metres provide outstanding purity and concentration. The combination of intense sunlight and cool nights helps Torrontés retain freshness while delivering its trademark expressive aromatics.

Throughout the show we compare these three fascinating grapes, explore how their growing conditions shape their flavour profiles, and highlight the regions around the world that produce the most distinctive examples. Whether you love crisp, zesty whites or rich, perfumed, exotic styles, this episode uncovers what makes aromatic varieties so compelling.

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Music

The music used for the UK Wine Show is Griffes de Jingle 1 by Marcel de la Jartèle and Silence by Etoile Noire.