With summer in full flight and so many of my friends encouraging me to explore German Rieslings, I recently decided it was time to have a good crack at getting to understand a bit more about the stuff. So with notebook in hand I headed off to the VWC Riesling dinner last night at Bistrode, Sydney. It was a well put together evening with an interesting range of wines. The following are my personal observations with some input from the diners around me.
On arrival
Vertigo 25GR Adelaide Hills Riesling 2008. Sweet honeysuckle nose, quinces on the palate, short finish with little acidity. Basically an off dry style and pleasant aperitif to start the evening.
2nd Bracket
Weingut Dr Loosen Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Kabinett 2007. Floral nose, dry finish limes and lemons flavours with a very very subtle underlying minerality. Apparently Lay is an old dialect word for slate and it just pecks through. Again a refreshing wine to accompany the Vertigo at the commencement of the meal.
Mac Forbes Strathbogie Ranges Single Vineyard Riesling RS9 2008. Flinty, shale, minerality, made very much in the Australian style with a sharp drop off of flavours at the back. Not really my style.
Grosset Springvale Clare Valley (Watervale) 2008. This is a wine I have been keen to try recently. Mineral like aromas. For the Riesling experts a statement of the obvious but there was a noticeable difference in bouquet between the Australian wines and the Germans, the former more steely, the later much more floral. (Nev no comments please). Green apples with that lovely additional complexity you expect from Grosset wines. Still really tightly wound and a wine to drink inside 4-5 years.
Domaine Josmeyer Riesling “Le Kottabe” 2006. The diner next to me summed up the bouquet on this perfectly, when he said it reminded him of an ammoniated brie. I have had this wine twice in the last week and it is a strange style to my way of thinking. Fulsome body with zesty red apples, it has a weird funky taste I just do not enjoy. By no means an elegant wine.
Weingut JL Wolf Jesuitengarten Grosse Gewachse Spatlese 2007. In contrast to the prior bottle this was a lovely wine with excellent depth of palate and quince and apples flavours. My one reservation about the wine is that it is sealed under cork and apparently nearly half the bottles for the tasting were rejected upon being opened.
3rd Bracket
Domaine Albert Mann Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg 2007. Shale/Schist nose, I was reminded of the white peaches and grapefruit my grandmother used to grow. Lovely complexity and IMO great potential. Still tightly wound, I will throw some into the cellar and revisit in a few years when it emerge an elegant wine.
Gunter Wittman Westhofen Morstein Riesling Trocken Grosse Gewache 2007. Fresh nose, it opens with yellow nectarines and finishes with butterscotch. Great potential and another wine destined for the pool room.
4th Bracket
Weingut Heymann-Lowenstein Riesling Schieferterrassen 2007. Biodynamic production, wild yeast ferment. Not elegant in the classic sense but rather a funky wine with interesting complexity. I found a cornucopia of fruit, nectarines, peaches even rock melon. Another wine bound for the cellar.
Weingut Dr Burklin-Wolf Riesling Wachenheimer Altenburg 2007. Serviced as part of 2 bottle flight with the prior wine and grouped together due to their funkiness. Another interesting wine but my preference was for the prior wine.
5th Bracket
Donnhoff Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spatlese 2007. A floral nose, reminding me of a peach tea I once used to drink. On the palate I found apricots and a lovely length. I would have remembered more of this wine if I had not consummed so many of the prior wine.
Also included Weingut Dr Loosen Wehiener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese 2007 & Mitchelton Blackwood Park Botrytis Riesling 2006
Overall an excellent evening, especially for the novices in the room.
