jamie goode's wine blog

Sunday, July 09, 2006

World cup night. Bad luck, France. Had a feeling you were going to lose when I opened a high-end French wine that was shot. Note to Stuart Pearce: please sign Cannovaro and Gattuso - perhaps also Ribery.

Two wines tonight. Two Australian Rieslings. One bone dry, the other very sweet. Both were pretty good.

Leeuwin Estate Art Series Riesling 2005 Margaret River, Australia
Initially on opening this is quite reduced, but after a while aromas of lime, citrus pith and minerals emerge. On the palate it's bone dry, with bright, limey fruit. High acid makes this very savoury. It really needs food, but it's a very well done Aussie-style Riesling with good concentration. Very good+ 88/100 (UK agent Domaine Direct)

Tamar Ridge Limited Release Botrytis Riesling 2005 Tasmania, Australia
This goes remarkably well with raspberries. Try it! It is sweet and viscous, yet light and fresh at the same time. Lots of complex, sweet apricot and lemony fruit with a nice spiciness, some honeyed notes and high acidity. An impressive, precise sweet wine with some future ahead of it. Very good/excellent 91/100 (UK agent Vinus Vita)

5 Comments:

At 1:16 AM, Blogger Salil said...

I'm not that fond of the extremely dry Rieslings, and I've tried a number from Australia that were much too dry and acidic for my liking (then again, I had a number of those without food). I've become very fond though of Rieslings from Marlborough - they're not easy to come across (if you live in Singapore), but they're for the most part excellent.

I'll look out for the Botrytis Riesling though - really enjoy that style of wine. Fingers crossed as far as getting a bottle in my hands here is concerned.

 
At 10:23 AM, Anonymous Barleymow said...

Jamie, in that case, if Brzail starts making good wine you will be able to make a packet on football predictions by opening a bottle of wine from each country before the match!

 
At 12:02 PM, Anonymous Bertrand said...

Yes, too bad for the World Cup. on the other side, having chosen (lazy option) to stay home, I will not have the regret to have missed photo-ops of rejoicing crowds in the streets...

Yes, we should talk some day.Your blog is at the same time very informative and non-pretentious.

I am not representing the natural wine world, but it is true that these vignerons are making great wines and that their life style is something they can be proud of.

 
At 10:55 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Salil- know what you mean. Some of the Aussie Rieslings do seem a tiny bit out of balance without any sweetness countering the acidity. The residual sugar in most New Zealand Rieslings is noticeable, even if it is only in rounding out the texture of the palate.

Barleymow, the Brazilian wine I am familiar with is Rio Sol, made by the team at Portugal's Dao Sul - although all seems to have gone rather quiet on this front. It comes from vineyards at 8 degrees south that crop three times a year! It was pretty good when I tried it a year or two back.

 
At 10:56 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Bertrand
Thanks for the nice comments. Yes, we should speak.

 

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