A lovely Kiwi Riesling from Neudorf
New Zealand is, of course, famous for its Sauvignon Blanc, becoming famous for its Pinot Noir, and beginning to make a name for its Syrahs. But what of its Rieslings? I think they're a bit underrated. They are also quite hard to sell.
But I've tried some great examples of late, in both the dry style, the just-off-dry style, and the lower alcohol semi-sweet Germanic style. Here's a really good one in the second category.
Neudorf Riesling Brightwater 2007 Nelson, New Zealand
Hand-picked grapes, whole bunch pressed, 11% alcohol and 10 g/litre residual sugar. This is a really precise, quite complex Riesling with pure lemon and grapefruit freshness, good acidity, and some of that ethereal quality known as minerality. The high acid is nicely offset with just a hint of sweetness, and there's no heaviness here at all. This is a really beautiful expression of Riesling with precision and transparency. 91/100 (£15.10 Berry Bros & Rudd)
Hand-picked grapes, whole bunch pressed, 11% alcohol and 10 g/litre residual sugar. This is a really precise, quite complex Riesling with pure lemon and grapefruit freshness, good acidity, and some of that ethereal quality known as minerality. The high acid is nicely offset with just a hint of sweetness, and there's no heaviness here at all. This is a really beautiful expression of Riesling with precision and transparency. 91/100 (£15.10 Berry Bros & Rudd)
Labels: New Zealand, Riesling
posted by Jamie @ 11:15 PM
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3 Comments:
Jamie can you offer any advice on kiwi vintages for riesling? I felt there was a noticeable difference between 2007 (great) and 2008 (ok) with spy valley. What's 2009 look like? Would you say that vintagess are of particular importance for nz whites?
I think 2008 was an exceptionally large vintage in Marlborough, and as such I think the quality of Sauvignon Blanc in particular suffered.
According to the wine institute of NZ, crop levels for riesling in NZ were a lot lower than 2008, and most of that is sourced from Marlborough.
From my knowledge of Marlborough's climate, heat accumulation is usually reliably adequate but not excessive and autumn rain is uncommon, so crop level is probably more important than other factors in most years.
From that alone I'd say that riesling will be better than in 2008, whether it's as good as 2007 I don't know.
Thanks Russell - I guess we'll have to try it to see for sure then...:-)
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