Riesling wines are often consumed when young - when they make a fruity and aromatic wine with aromas of green or other apples, grapefruit, peach, honey, rose blossom or cut green grass - and usually a crisp taste due to its high acidity. However, Riesling's naturally high acidity and range of flavours makes it suitable for extended aging. International wine expert Michael Broadbent rates aged German Rieslings - some hundreds of years old - extremely highly Sweet Riesling wines (such as German Trockenbeerenauslese are especially suited for cellaring since its high sugar content provides for additional preservation). However, high quality dry or off-dry Riesling wine is also known to have not just survived, but also been enjoyable at an age exceeding 100 years

These factors are usually also considered to contribute to high quality Riesling wines. Hence the petrol note is in fact more likely to develop in top wines than in simpler wines made from high-yielding vineyards.

The most expensive wines made from Riesling are late harvest dessert wines, produced by letting the grapes hang on the vines well past normal picking time. Through evaporation caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea ("noble rot"), or by freezing [as in the case of ice wine (in German, Eiswein)], water is removed and the resulting wine offers richer layers on the palate. These concentrated wines have more sugar (in extreme cases hundreds of grams per litre), more acid (to give balance to all the sugar), more flavor, and more complexity. These elements combine to make wines which are amongst the most long lived of all white wines.

In wine making, the delicate nature of the Riesling grape requires special handling during harvesting to avoid crushing or bruising of the skin. Without this care, the broken skins could leak tannin into the juice, giving a markedly coarse taste and throwing off balance the Riesling’s range of flavors and aromas.

For a wine that is best at its “freshest” states, the grapes and juice may be chilled often throughout the vinification process. This is first done right after picking (to preserve the grapes' more delicate flavors), next after it has been processed through a bladder press and again right before fermentation. During fermentation, the wine is cooled in temperature controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks kept between 10°-18°C (50°-65°F). This differs from red wines that normally ferment at 24°-29°C (75°-85°F)

Unlike Chardonnay, most Riesling do not undergo malolactic fermentation. This helps to preserve the tart, acidic characteristic of the wine that gives Riesling wines its “thirst-quenching” quality. Riesling is often put through a process of cold stabilization, where the wine is stored just above its freezing point. The wine is kept at this temperature until much of the tartaric acid has crystallized and precipitated out of the wine. This helps to prevent crystallization of the acid (often called "wine diamonds") in the bottle. After this, the wine is normally filtered again to remove any remaining yeast or impurities.

In viticulture, the two main components in growing Riesling grapes are to keep it "Long & Low", meaning that the ideal climate for Riesling is one that allows for a long, slow ripening process and proper pruning to keep the yield low and the flavor concentrated.

Riesling is a versatile wine easily favorable for pairing with food, because of its balance of sugar and acidity. It can be paired with white fish or pork, and is one of the few wines that can stand up to Thai and Chinese cuisine. A Riesling's typical aromas are of flowers, tropical fruits, and mineral stone (such as slate or quartz), [although with time, the wine acquires a petrol note, as mentioned above]. The sharp acidity/sweetness in Rieslings can serve as a good balance to foods that have a high salt content.