The Auswine Forum

Hi all

Let's hear your opinions of some wines. I would be very interested, as, I'm sure, would other wine lovers, and potential wine drinkers be.

Today, in the last 6 months, which is the best Riesling you have tried, and why?

My contribution, 2002 Pegasus Bay Riesling from New Zealand.

Why, its a style new to me, lower alcohol, loads of residual sugar quite deliberately, but also a delightful bracing natural (I think) acidity with mineral and slatey notes. terrific balance, great impact, love to get a case.

Your favourite is??

Gavin Trott wrote:Hi all

I think you mean "Hi all (except Brian and Ric)"

hi gavin

for me it would be the 2002 Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett.

i have not tried the pegasus riesling before but i think on paper and from your description they may have something in common: low alcohol, relatively high residual sugar but also has enough acidity and mineral backbone to keep it interesting. the honey-like sweetness adds the extra dimension. very different from the bone dry clare valley rieslings.

cheers
eddie

My fave riesling over the last year is a fairly garden variety one: the 03 Seppelt Drumborg. The 03 Grossett polish is also damn fine if different to the 02.
I have the 03 Felton Road dry riesling in the fridge, that should be interesting...

cheers

Andrew

Generally, I haven't been able to find white wines that really demand my attention, though there are ( somewhat rare, for me! ) times where I find them a perfect complement. Hence, I've probably had less than five rieslings in the last six months+ - the clear favourite being somewhat unusual, a 1978 Wolf Blass Rhine Rielsing. If ever there was an opposite of bone dry, this is it. Still going strong at 25

My pick would would be the 2003 Grosset Watervale which was the best of a range of Clare/Eden rieslings in a taste off at EEC September last year.

It has quite a few similarities with the 2003 Polish Hill - both are very closed on the nose, needing a lot of time to coax out some fruit characters to match that steely/mineral intensity, and both are rich with passionfuit on the palate. Breathing brings out some passionfruit on the bouquet on the Polish Hill, but to me the Watervale is more complex, with green-apples spiced with nutmeg/cinnamon, some hessian/wool, and finally freshly squeezed lemon juice. The palate seemed to have just as much acid and structure as the Polish Hill, with truckloads of additional, explosive passionfruit flavour to match, and the lingering, spicy aftertaste goes on for over a minute. Both are serious cellaring wines, but to me the Watervale has the edge.

This narrowly beat out the 2003 Paulett Polish Hill, and the 2003 Wilson Vineyard Polish Hill which are also superb.

Cheers
Ian

Felton Road Dry Riesling, sooo minerally and steely, really enjoyable for $30 AUS ($20 at cellar door)

Gday Gavin

My favourite style is that displayed by Nagambie Lakes riesling from Mtichelton and Tahbilk. 2000 and 2001 vintages from both wineries were very good. Usually generous, full-flavoured wines although must agree with Halliday on the Blackwood Park 02 - not up to the standard of earlier vintages. Curiously or coincidentally Tahbilk didn't release a regular label riesling 02 though have had some of their wine club's Everyday Drinking range riesling 02 that I enjoyed - was going to order some more but only the Everyday 03 listed on the website when I went to order it. Had a couple of bottles of Jasper Hill Georgia's riesling 2001 that was similar in style to Blackwood Park and Tahbilk but then the winery is renowned for it's generously flavoured wine. A bottle of Grosset Watervale 01 drunk a month or so ago was OK but not my style. Wasn't really impressed with it 18 months or so ago either. Don't like kero characters in wine and am also a bit wary of residual sugar in riesling causing it to be a bit too confected for my taste.

Cheers

daz

Hi Gavin!

The best riesling that I had recently was at a German Riesling tasting. My vote for the dry style would be for the Weingut Gunderloch Jean Baptiste Riesling Kabinett 2002 10.5% AP No. 43790432303 and for the sweeter tooth version would be Weingut Gunderloch Nackenheim Rothenberg Riesling Auslese QmP 2002 7.5% AP No. 43790431203.

My TN for the Jean Baptist: Light translucent greenish bordering on straw yellow colour with good floral nose, pine needles, hints of melon and a faint reminder of car refresherner. The wine swirls around the mouth with indecision of being slightly off-dry to sweetish with an oily structure and loads of tongue bitting acidity. The saliva inducing acid coats the mouth with 15 – 30 seconds length which is slightly shorter than the Troken but appears to be more refined. A minute later, I was still sucking off the pleasant tinge of sweetness from between my teeth. I like it enough to get at least a bottle of the wine.

The Auslese display a young mid-straw pale yellow colour to accompany an interesting nose that reminds of sweet blue cheese, chevre, sweet melon with a saltish hint. The palate weights in with light sweetened pomelo along with a good long length where the sweetness transforms into cane sugar in the mouth. It would be interesting to see how this wine matures over the years. This is not one to drink in a short term and would be interesting to see how it develops over the next 5-10 years.

Incidentally, I opened a bottle of Pegasus Bay Aria Riesling 2000 which had more sugar than I would have imagined...puts it closer to the dessert style. Would love to try another bottle in about 5 years' time when the sugar is tamer but I am worried that the acidity level may deteriorate and causes an imbalance.

Cheers,
Henn

Just reading the Sunday Canberra Times, Chris Shanahan article on the riesling challenge. Seems the $7-$10 Jacobs Creek 2002 (stelvin version) scored two trophies against some much higher-priced competition. Apparently most Aus release of this was under cork?

Also reported the judges comments on the 2001 and 2002 rieslings under stelvin as suffering 'some sulphur and yeast problems', but the 2003 vintage being a 'great improvement in style', implying less of the sulphur/yeast faults. Looks like winemakers and bottlers are getting on top of the learning curve with stelvins quite quickly.

Now where are those $8 reds that can knock off the $40 wines in the same class?

Hi Gavin!
I LOVE a great riesling but it's not easy to come by. For me, good ones include the FRAMINGHAM Marlborough Dry Riesling 2001 and the CAPEL VALE Whispering Hill Single Vineyard Riesling 2002. I also agree with you choice of the PEGASUS BAY.
Cheers,
Attila

HLee wrote:Hi Gavin!

The best riesling that I had recently was at a German Riesling tasting. My vote for the dry style would be for the Weingut Gunderloch Jean Baptiste Riesling Kabinett 2002 10.5% AP No. 43790432303 and for the sweeter tooth version would be Weingut Gunderloch Nackenheim Rothenberg Riesling Auslese QmP 2002 7.5% AP No. 43790431203.

My TN for the Jean Baptist: Light translucent greenish bordering on straw yellow colour with good floral nose, pine needles, hints of melon and a faint reminder of car refresherner. The wine swirls around the mouth with indecision of being slightly off-dry to sweetish with an oily structure and loads of tongue bitting acidity. The saliva inducing acid coats the mouth with 15 – 30 seconds length which is slightly shorter than the Troken but appears to be more refined. A minute later, I was still sucking off the pleasant tinge of sweetness from between my teeth. I like it enough to get at least a bottle of the wine.

..

Cheers,
Henn

Hi Henn, I rcently had the 01 version of this wine, and had fairly high expectations but found it fairly bland and boring. I guess the 02 was a lot better,


cheers

Andrew

Gavin
I have no one wine that stands out more the different styles of riesling. I drink and cellar mostly New Zealand Riesling in the $15-$25 range about 3-4doz of each vintage and for about 4years. Tend to have wines from vineyards that have cellared well in the past,Giesen, Hunter, Waipara Springs, Pegasus Bay, Milton, Palliser,Seifried etc. Style occasionally change from vintage but most are medium and with four years cellaring balance out to have flavours of lemon, limes and honeyed botrytis, not many are drunk with food but had before a meal or causal occasion.Some years i do put away riesling from Central Otago, Felton Rd, Chard Farm etc These tend to be drier and more flinty than their northern cousins and some what more expensive St.Helena is a vineyard on the northside of Christchurch and from there each year i buy a case of their easy drinking riesling for $9 a btl. Cellared for a maximum of two years it turns into a medium well balance quaffer.
What i think New Zealand does well is the ice wines and late harvest/ botrytis rieslings. You can get good examples from $15 for the Seifried Ice wine to the $50 Villa Maria Noble Riesling (375ML) all showing loads of orange marmalade, apricots, honey and peaches and can be had as an aperitif or with desert.
Do not get to drink may european riesling but when i do i prefer the drier steely flinty low ac% German ones to the french style. But in reality i enjoy them all.
I'm not sure Gavin that this will give you any comfort but i have a case of the 2002 Peguas Bay riesling i don't know why i ended up with that many but hopefully sometime in the future i can get a bottle to you so that you can see how it is traveling from the point of your last tasting.

Cheers
Geoffrey

I agree with Henn on the Weingut Gunderloch Jean Baptiste Riesling Kabinett 2002, and such a great BUY !
Cheers,
Mishy

Red Bigot wrote:Just reading the Sunday Canberra Times, Chris Shanahan article on the riesling challenge. Seems the $7-$10 Jacobs Creek 2002 (stelvin version) scored two trophies against some much higher-priced competition. Apparently most Aus release of this was under cork?

Also reported the judges comments on the 2001 and 2002 rieslings under stelvin as suffering 'some sulphur and yeast problems', but the 2003 vintage being a 'great improvement in style', implying less of the sulphur/yeast faults. Looks like winemakers and bottlers are getting on top of the learning curve with stelvins quite quickly.

Now where are those $8 reds that can knock off the $40 wines in the same class?

The 2002 JC Reisling is a very fine drop and tremendous for its price (picked up a dozen for $6.50 each) - personally compared it against the JC reserve reisling and a few others up to the $25 price point and it was a clear winner.

Have to agree with the standard '02 JC Riesling, and I got the stelvins.
MM.

I tried the 2002 Jacobs Creek Reisling ($7.50 in stelvin) against:

2001 Orlando Steingarten ($23)
2001 Jacobs Creek Reserve Reisling ($13)
2003 Orlando St Helga Reisling ($17)

And we all thought the 2002 JC was the best of them all, one that I would spend money on where as the others, whilst nice and good were no match on price vs quality.