Summer of Riesling 2013

I was lucky enough to attend a Riesling event at the Beresford Hotel.  It has a combination of stuff from Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria and the US.

Overall there was a fantastic selection of Rieslings even though it was a bit more Australiancentric than I would have liked.

Most of the German and Austrian Rieslings were ok.  Prices were actually quite good overall. 

I think as I have more and more Riesling...my palate is moving more towards some RS +  good acidity....Australian Rieslings tend to have very good acidity but with the whole bone dry thing, I think a lot of them fall short.  Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of VERY good bone dry Rieslings in Australia..they age fantastically well...but so many of them end up just being a battery acid mess lacking in any real complexity and void of any fruit...just because it tastes like petrol doesn't mean it has developed properly.

Here are some of the highlights from the show:

Gaelic Cemetery  Riesling 2012.  Very good depth to this.  Hasn't started developing too much but it has a very nice mid palate, good length, quite a  nice drop.  Just a touch of RS is really helping to soften this a little bit...it is nice.  Retail on this is stupid though..Something like 45AUD.  Made by the same winemaker as Pikes...I can see the similarity in style but even as expensive as Pikes Merle is...it is still cheaper than this...and a better wine to boot.  Good wine, worth drinking but probably 10-15 dollars too much...

Lethbridge Dr. Nadeson Riesling 2011....I love this guys stuff and this is no different.  Some RS mixed with high acid content and low ph makes for a very interesting Riesling...a bit of sweet and a bit of sizzle...It looks an importer may start bringing his stuff in the US..I'm actually excited about seeing that happen...

Tunkalilla Riesling  2010 from Willamette Valley in Oregon.  I was really surprised with this one...really nice development on the nose..good complexity..you can smell that it has a bit of residual sugar...Citrus, lemon, some herbs...looks interesting.  On the palate it just smacks you in the face...REALLY strong acidity...but it it all balanced out by the RS...17-18g of sugar which isn't too high but it strikes a very interesting balance of RS and Acid..I think I actually like this better than the Lethbridge...with 9.9g of acid (which is high) and a ph under 3....

Weiser Kuenstler "Enkircher Ellergrub" Kabinett 2011.  This is the same wine I tried at Sepia..although because they've kept them too cold, I'm not getting as much from the nose.  Still, the wine had great depth and great balance.  It was still one of my favorites but I didn't get the same wonderful nose from before...I do like some of the new world style Rieslings..but German Rieslings have it down when it comes to integrating RS into the wine...such great balance and oneness and the minerality tends to really show through a bit better...

I was a little disappointed there weren't any German GG's there and I felt the foreign section was a bit smaller than it should have been..but overall it was a great showing...