Category: Riesling

2012 Wilson Polish Hill River Riesling

Some toast but few if any petro chem smells. Fine citrus, touch of white peach and beeswax. Pure and delicate with a rainwater like gentleness and beautiful mouth watering acidity. Properly dry, refined and relying on balance and definition rather than raw power. Held up superbly over two days. Graceful. Will sail on for a few more years yet and could even get better!

12.50% alcohol. Screwcap. About $20 I think six years ago.

94 polished Polish Hill River points.

Another bottle January 2020 and a few developments. Richer, touch of toast and lime marmalade, deeply delicious now but still a beautiful cut of cool pebbly brook acidity. Pushing a point more.

2011 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett

Still a pale colour and pristine sparkly flavours of ripe citrus, white peach together with old church candle wax and flower arrangements show some sprightly youth. There’s a sniff of petrol creeping in and some honeyed melding of flavour from time in the bottle. Fine ripe acidity that tingles the teeth is perfectly balanced by just the right sweetness. No cloy just integration. Is there anything better on a fan forced oven of a hot summer evening?

10.50 % alcohol. Screw cap, performing perfectly. About $50 at the time.

94 points.

2017 Monoprix Supermarket Alsace Riesling put in the bottle by Ruhlman of Dambach la Ville

It’s an euro more than the supermarket’s basic Alsatian, so organic it is and never mind the expense. For once a lucky strike. Clean, fresh and some real fruit with a nicely tense balance of good ripe acidity and maybe a touch of residual. Seems dryish though. Mid mouth the citrusy apples and Alsace spice swell but just waver a bit towards the end. The acid pulls it back into shape and keeps things tidy. Satisfying Riesling for next to nowt. Eee, that were luxury.

12.50% alcohol. Cork and doesn’t la belle France love them. 9 euros!

90 points.

2016 Heroes Riesling

Only the second white post on this odd indulgence of a blog and it’s a tricky one. Despite a long and abiding love of Riesling, it’s always been a swerve toward the dry thanks to the amazing value of some great Australian versions. At lower price points which suit every day drinking sugar can also be used to bolster thin fruit, only increasing prejudice. So what of a premium Riesling from the beautiful Otways that seems to chase all the texture, feathery acid and sugar balance of a serious German? First taste and the fruit’s all citrus and cut apple with a sweet acid tang that provokes the usual dry prejudice. There’s a nice touch of toasty waxy development too. Given an hour or so it did seem to become more of a whole which resisted being broken down into its components. Somehow the fruit, sugar and fine mouthwatering acid all worked together and demanded another delicious sip. Really a good tilt at that Germanic lightness of being. Perfect for hot February nights.

7.40% alcohol. Screwcap. $32 on the Heroes’ website.

93 points if I were pretending to know more about the great Germans.

2009 Henschke Julius Eden Valley Riesling

Starting to gain some darker gold and green colour. Classic lime and toasty smells and developing honeyed lime marmalade in the flavour department. Perhaps the acidity’s a little sour and green compared to other vintages. Not quite that mouthwatering tingly freshness nor the extended peachy ripeness which can make Julius so great.

Screw Cap. From the stack of cardboard called a cellar. Was about $20 on special and that’s rare these days for Julius.

92 points.