Waipara, New Zealand
$4 Berkeley
I was very excited when I read the story on the back label of this wine. I had never tried a New Zealand Riesling and it sounded like the people behind the wine were fanatical perfectionists, and maybe they are. But from this example, at least, they have more work to do.
There’s initially yellow apple and gentle pear, but the main thing is the slightly viscous lemon candy acid that follows. If there’s green apple in this Riesling (see Schild Riesling comments), it’s even unripe green apple — yes, that strong and tart. So, this is better than the last high-acid white wine I reviewed, but I won’t get any more of it.
Nevertheless, the evening was fine because I used a quarter of the bottle to simmer some pork rib meat (after slicing and browning it) with ground fennel seed, ground coriander, tarragon, thyme, and white pepper (lemon grass would have been nice). It was delicious, and fairly fatty, so the rest of the wine was a nice accompaniment. As I’ve seen often commented in wine reviews, so much of how good a wine is depends on the company it has, food-wise and human-wise, what the occasion is, etc. And, of course, the wine can improve those other components, too. 🙂
We spent 23 days in New Zealand in March and visited a number of the main wine growing regions on both islands. We tasted some superb Rieslings…particularly from Te Whare Winery (pronounced Tuh-Far). But all the Rieslings we had were from the two largest and most well-known regions: Marlborough on the south island and Hawkes Bay on the north island. The Waipara, where this Riesling is from, isn’t far from Christchurch on the south island. There are two incredible wineries there: Pegasus Bay and The Mud House. Their Rieslings were very good. So, trust me…there is hope for Riesling in NZ! Just likely won’t be trying this one. Check out Muddy Waters’ (NOT the blues guitarist) website if you’re interested. http://www.muddywater.co.nz/
Correction to my own reply: The first NZ winery I mentioned should have been Te Whare Ra Winery (pronounced Tea Faree Rah). I was close the first time, but not quite close enough.
Thanks for the report. That must have been fun. 🙂
After looking at their site, and seeing them tout the aging potential of their Rieslings, I’ve wondered if the substantial acid in this wine would enable it to age well. I have trouble imagining this wine would age into anything especially interesting, but nonetheless…