This wine is light straw in colour and smells of flowers, sweet hay, talc and crushed lemon tree leaves. The palate is silky in texture tasting of lemon curd, Granny Smith apples, sweet flowers and talc, with lemon zest on the finish. To me the wine is somewhat austere in structure at present but I have no doubt it will fill out to become quite a rich wine with similarities to that which we produced in 2000. Riesling can be surprisingly responsive to the vintage: the amount of canopy influences the varietal, floral and even mineral characters, while shading within the canopy can cause it to produce its own version of 'herbaceous notes' - normally different and more subtle than Sauvignon blanc but sometimes almost as obvious. Vintages with active botrytis (possibly not even visible in the fruit), depending on the activity and levels of laccase enzyme produced by the fungus, can result in wines which develop (and peak) faster and show honeyed, botrytis characters when none were initially evident. My guess is that this wine may be medium term, showing powerful but pure varietal flavours from the full, carefully managed canopies and honeyed flavours from the hints of botrytis influence. Try at 2 years, and evaluate after this - it is likely that you will be drinking it inside 6 or 7 years. |
