Swirl and taste: Delicate white peach, green apple, and lime flavors — or riper apricot, nectarine, and mandarin orange. Riesling often has a pleasant minerality akin to wet stones and a haunting diesel-like aroma (if you can imagine that as a good thing).

Pair with:
• Shellfish
• Pork
• Ham
• Salads and vegetables
• Egg dishes
• Sausages, salumi, and charcouterie — especially cured pork products
• Barbecue
• Asian dishes — Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese (sushi!), Indian
• Southwestern foods

Find your style: Bone-dry to quite sweet. (Western winemakers are making it drier now.) The best have great acidity that keeps the wine lively.

PERFECT RECIPE PAIRINGS

For dry Riesling •  Chicken Stew with Olives and Lemon •  Pork Scaloppine with Sweet-tart Shallots •  Potato, Leek, and Mushroom Gratin

For slightly off-dry •  Pan-Roasted Fish with Thai Curry Sauce •  Chile Verde •  Halibut and Sweet Potato Chowder

For fairly sweet (but not late-harvest dessert style) •  Best-Ever Chinese Chicken Salad •  Pad Thai •  Sweet-and-Sour Chicken-Apricot Skewers

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