The International Riesling Review
Tuesday 17th May
Hosted by Joe Wadsack
Wines of Germany took the occasion of the LIWSF to celebrate riesling's world class status by taking the lead in an International Riesling Review tasting. For this Wines of Germany teamed up with other renowned riesling producers from Alsace, Australia, New Zealand and Washington State in the USA (well sort of).
Scores are out of 10.
1999 AOC Alsace Grand Cru
Brand Riesling, Cave Vinicole de Turckheim £12.99 RRP
Mid straw. Full, quite perfumed nose – very minerally. Full-on palate. Quite
a grainy, chalky feel. Ripe fruit; great depth. Enormous length: lingers
forever. 8
2004 Tim Adams Riesling,
Clare Valley, South Australia £7.99 RRP
A very, very pale straw. Very, very crisp nose, slightly malic. Very crisp and
pure. Very fresh and young, with a touch of lime on the palate. Loads of
riesling characteristics on the palate. Fairly high acidity. 8
2004 Framingham Riesling,
Marlborough, New Zealand £8.92 RRP
A pale greenish straw. Riper, more floral nose with honeysuckle notes. Lower
acidity than the Tim Adams or the Turckheim, with a bit more residual sugar.
Very much representative of the New Zealand style of riesling. 8
2004 Eroica Riesling,
Chateau Michelle & Ernie Loosen, Washington State, USA £15.99 RRP
Remarkably, Washington is one of the largest riesling producers in the world,
and Michelle alone has 750 acres of Riesling vines. This wine is made in
collaboration with Ernie Loosen, Decanter Magazine's man of the year in 2005.
This has a broad floral nose, full of honeysuckle notes and very fragrant. Very
round and ripe. Initially it seems a touch dilute but then fills well. Quite
sweetish (apparently around 18-20 g residual sugar). An interesting well made
wine, but a bit
over-priced.
8+
2003 Graacher Himmelreich
Riesling Spätlese, JJ Prüm, Mosel, Germany £15.50 RRP
The nose is rather dominated by sulphur, but that blows off with some
agitation. Fantastic creamy peachy nose. Really very sweet. Prüm often raises
the bar for the Prädikat levels, and given that this is 2003, the ripeness and
sweetness levels of this are probably teetering around the Beerenauslese
levels. And indeed this has high sweetness levels. But there's a good balance
there, and great potential for the future, starting maybe 5 or 6 years down the
line. 9
2000 Scharzhofberger
Kabinett, Egon Müller
A very pale gold. Very strong granite nose. This seems remarkably mature,
especially given the long ageing profile of Egon Müller's wine. Appley flavours
with a slight soft caramelised perfume. 9
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Last updated: 15 December 2005