Visiting a cellar door can be an opportunity to get a glimpse of the people behind the business and their feelings toward the land they farm. A 2019 road trip to Sydney stopped off in pretty Bowral and a bit of research suggested Tertini near Mittagong were making some of the more interesting wine thereabouts. A warm welcome, it’s a cold place up in the Southern Highlands, and a cosy seat to taste their range was a good start. This Riesling was first in their line up and looked good. The rest of the range didn’t quite hit the same level. In hindsight that’s probably more a measure of how good is their Riesling rather than any lack of quality in their other efforts. Hitting a cellar door without context and pro levels of tasting can make benchmarking difficult. Lovely passionate people staffing the cellar door, they were happy to answer a daft geeky question by finding the winemaker not far away, saying he loves to talk about his efforts. More than three years later and curiosity about my measly single bottle buy got the better of me. Clean and inviting smells of ripe lime with a burr of white peach, sort of coriander pesto, all round and full in the middle. Obviously carefully grown and picked fruit. Just so ripeness, gentle soft acidity leaves a mouthwatering finish. The second day and even more evidence of very good grapes with the flavours deepening and resolving into more pleasure. Really delicious surprise. By way of comparison perhaps more round and succulent like Victorian or Canberra’s better Rieslings than the lime and citrus drive of South Australia? Or just faithful to the Southern Highlands and a care for a good vineyard? Whatever, the sort of cellar door visit that doubles the pleasure, then and now.
12.4% alcohol. Screw cap. $35 I think?
Started 93 points but happy with 95 second day.
Cognitive Bottle Therapy 