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White Wine
Riesling (rees-ling) is the noble white wine grape variety of Germany, second only to Müller-Thurgau. Although often regarded as the standard by which white wine varieties are judged it is not planted to the same extent in any other country.There are modest areas in France, northern Italy and the eastern European countries. There is a little in Argentina and very little in Chile and South Africa.Most of the so-called Riesling in South Africa appears to be Crouchen. California (747 ha) and Australia (nearly 4000 ha) may well have the largest areas outside Germany and France.
In Australia it is often called Rhine Riesling to avoid possible confusion with Hunter River Riesling (Semillon) and Clare Riesling (Crouchen).The tendency to use the name Riesling for other varieties is not confined to Australia and similar distinctions are needed in other countries. Thus it is called Riesling Renano in Italy, Rheinriesling in Austria, Rajnai Rizling in Hungary and Rajnski Rizling in Yugoslavia, mainly to distinguish it from the variety known as Riesling Italico,Welschriesling, Olaszrizling or Rizling Vlassky respectively, which provides much of the Riesling wine from these countries. In California it is called White Riesling, to separate it from Grey Riesling, a grey-fruited form of Bastardo, and there are also such names as Frankenriesling (Sylvaner), Breisgauer Riesling (Ortlieber), Budai Rizling (Kleinweiss) and Banati Riesling (Creaca).
