2018 Rieslings have been bottled and are now resting up before showtime in a few weeks.
Riesling remains an incredibly exciting experience from tasting fruit in the vineyard, to the day we press the fruit to old wood, bottling and finally drinking.
Every year we seem to be saved by riesling. at harvest. It is normally the last fruit to come into the cellar when energy is waning and enthusiasm has settled with the last ferment. Then we get the first pick of Riesling in from the stunning Strathbogie Ranges and we are back to our giggly excited selves. If the piercing fruit quality doesn’t wake the senses then certainly the acid does. All part of the DNA of these amazing vineyards.
I bang on about the granite being such a feature of the shape and flow of the rieslings that often I overlook the fruit quality and weight. Sugar is barely perceptible even though we stupidly refer to it on the front labels.
This year we have FOUR rieslings. Starting with one of our more textural and balanced Spring Rieslings to date, this showcases the balance of the vintage. Then we step into the oldest vineyard in the region for our RS wines. The slightly riper profile of the RS8, the piercingly pure kaffir lime focus of RS17 and finally the incredibly slurpable and yet complex RS89 (Magnum only).
We are hosting a range of events in November. Paradise Alley in Melbourne will be a good old fashioned riesling celebration bringing together a bunch of riesling producers from around the world that I greatly admire and enjoy. While out at Graceburn we are having a weekend of riesling and yum cha for no other reason than it makes me hungry and thirsty.
Mac