Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Awatere Valley Riesling 2010

Apologies to my readers (if I have any left) for the long absence . Personal circumstances have necessitated it. I've moved my family twice in the last year and we've ended up in a lovely house with no good wine shops around. Also, I don't need to tell anybody about the expense involved with buying and renovating a house, and buying good wine just couldn't be justified.

However I'm trying to get back off the wagon so to speak, and this is a good one to start with. I've always been a fan of New Zealand Riesling and when we did a recent Sainsbury's online order I saw this on offer.

I wouldn't say it's a classic but it's certainly enjoyable. It's a young wine (2010) so it doesn't have any of those secondary flavours that we Riesling geeks love. It's very fresh and has plenty of acidity, almost too much, but also some pleasant honey character. I would like to see what it would be like after a couple of years of bottle age when the acidity is tamed and some secondary flavour sets in. Maybe one for the cellar?

At £9 it may seem steep, but I got it on offer for a couple of pounds less (can't remember the price exactly). If it evolves well it's a bargain.

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Awatere Valley Riesling 2010

Marlborough, New Zealand

Sainsbury's

£8.99

3/5

Gerhard & Sieglinde Klein Riesling Trocken 2009

An oddity today, at least for my household: a trocken (dry) German Riesling from Naked Wines.

I've been wanting to try a dry German Riesling for ages, as it isn't so common in the UK. Apparently it is the Riesling of choice in Germany, and most exports are of the sweeter variety. I'm familiar with dry Riesling from Alsace and Australia, but I've never had a German one.

We were having gammon for Sunday lunch, so the Klein Riesling seemed an appropriate match. And it was indeed a good match, as noted by myself when shovelling a forkfull of hot pork fat into my mouth followed by a swig of the wine. The dryness kind of threw me at first, as the nose had the typical, well, German character and you could almost smell the sweetness, only to have a sip and discover mouth puckering acidity and almost sourness instead. With the food it all comes together though, and I just wish it was more widely available here in the UK.

Weingut Gerhard & Sieglinde Klein

Riesling Trocken 2009

Pflaz, Germany

Naked Wines

£9.99

3/5

The Naked Grape Riesling 2009

This Riesling is from the Pfalz region of Germany, and is made be none other than Ernst Loosen of Dr. Loosen fame. It's an entry-level wine, and it seemed a perfect contender as an everyday table wine that I could pair with my home-made Chinese dishes.

The benchmark for this level of Riesling is the Loosen Bros. Dr. L Riesling, which is a brilliant bargain. How would this stand up to it?

I know it's not a contest, but at this price point competition is fierce, for me anyway. The clear winner is still Dr. L.

This was OK, but I felt it lacked the purity of the Mosel-made Dr. L. The Naked Grape had some residual flavours that made it a bit unappealing, like some grapey flavours and 'cheap' notes on the finish. From the first sip I knew it wasn't going to be a favourite.

It's not bad though, and if you can't get hold of Dr. L then by all means this is a good entry-level introduction to quality German Riesling. It's just really hard to beat Dr. L, which is also actually cheaper at £6.99 (at Sainsbury's).

The Naked Grape

Riesling 2009

Pfalz, Germany

Waitrose

£7.49

2.5/5

Bassermann-Jordan Pfalz Riesling 2009

I went to Waitrose the other day to buy a good Riesling. I had the Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten in mind, but its price had crept up to £13.50. Next to it on the shelf was this one from Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan, at just under £10. It wasn't really the price that made me choose it - I have had the Dr. Loosen before and I know it is good. I just felt like trying something new.

This was really good actually. It is from the Rheinland-Pfalz state in Germany which has a rich wine-growing history. Read all about it here. The wine has solid structure with its acidity, and it had a bit of weight behind it - really moreish. Random Aussie Bloke and I finished it off rather quickly, and it went surprisingly well with a ripe French Brie. I have always felt that white wines match so much better with cheese than red...

It was just under £10 in the shop (can't remember exactly - £9-something).

Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan

Riesling 2009

Deidesheim, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

Waitrose

3.5/5

Tesco Finest Steillage Riesling 2008

'Tesco Finest' wines are always worth a try. This one I haven't seen before, but it's something that would interest me. A Mosel Riesling for under £7.

It's slightly off-dry with subtle fruit and a short finish. Maybe a touch dilute - it's not great but not bad. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again.

Tesco Finest Steillage Riesling 2008

Mosel, Germany

Tesco

£6.29

2.5/5

Peter Lehmann Eden Valley Riesling 2008

I wouldn't say this is my favourite Australian Riesling, but I think it expresses enough Riesling character and the price is reasonable enough to warrant some attention.

It's interesting to see what others thought of this wine. One customer on Majestic's website found it disappointing (although they gave it 3/5), and though it was expensive. On Peter Lehmann's website the average customer rating is 2/5, where 2 is 'OK' and 5 is 'excellent'.

I think I would just say this is a good 'everyday' Riesling when you can get it on offer. There is certainly nothing much wrong with it, except perhaps a slight lack of concentration. I've had far worse at this price point.

Peter Lehmann

Eden Valley Riesling 2008

Eden Valley, Australia

Majestic

£8.69 (£6.95 when you buy 2)

3/5

Pauletts Polish Hill River Riesling 2009

Tonight a Clare Valley Riesling was in order. I'm rarely disappointed by these, and this was no exception. My only regret is I haven't tried this wine after a few years in the cellar.

I prefer my Riesling with some bottle age, to enjoy those secondary characteristics, especially the petrol and honey characters. This wine was fresh, limey, bright, and acidic - good but it just seems it has more to offer.

I need to start putting some of these away instead of drinking them so young - aged examples aren't always easy to find.

Paulett Wines

Polish Hill River Riesling 2009

Clare Valley, Australia

Majestic

£10.99 (£8.79 when you buy 2)

3/5

Chateau des Charmes Estate Bottled Riesling 2007

My sister was over to visit from Canada recently, and she brought me this Niagara-region Riesling. It's from the same producer that makes this red, which I thought was a bit weak. However, whites are more Ontario's strong point, so I was open-minded about this.

This was in fact a lovely wine. It has all the necessary ingredients - the citrus, the acid, even the kerosene notes that I love. It was a lighter style, but that's fine (more German than say, Clare Valley), the important thing being it has the required varietal character that makes us love this grape.

From what I can gather the price is between $12 and $13 CDN. Pretty darned reasonable if you ask me. A success.

Chateau des Charmes

Estate Bottled Riesling 2007

VQA, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada

~$12-13

3.5/5

Wolf Blass Gold Label Riesling 2005

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, but my entire immediate family from Canada is over visiting at the moment. We're currently renting a holiday home in Bournemouth, and have at least had 2 days of good weather, although that's come to an abrupt end.

I finally found a couple of decent wine shops. They are both independent sorts, and have a good range of wines. They are a bit overpriced, but that's no surprise considering the lack of competition.

The weather being warm I'm still drinking mostly whites, and was suffering from Riesling withdrawal. The Jacobs Creek Riesling I picked up from the local Tesco Express wasn't going to cut it. I saw this Wolf Blass wine at one of the previously mentioned shops, and decided to give it a try. It's made from fruit sourced from both the Clare and Eden valleys, and had some good bottle age. At £12.99 it seemed reasonable.

It's a nice wine - a predictable (in a good way) mix of lime and petrol flavours, with a good backbone of acidity. It also has a nice fatness to it. A result.

Wolf Blass

Gold Label Riesling 2005

Clare/Eden Valley, Australia

4/5

Penfolds Koonunga Hill Autumn Riesling 2008

Being a Riesling junkie, I couldn't not try this. Good producer (although they do make plonk as well), cool bottle, offer price...

Apparently this wine has a dash of 'Traminer' grapes in it. Interesting. Can't say I noticed it though.

I found this a bit disappointing. It has good initial Riesling character - limey zestiness and the like, but it tapers off into a disappointing, vegetal finish. Supposed 'honey' character is more like crystal sugar (although I wouldn't say it's sweet), and it's just a bit of a bore. I'm probably being too harsh - it's not bad and I would drink it again if it were offered, but you can do better at this price with a bit of nosing around.

Penfolds

Autumn Riesling 2008

South Australia

Waitrose

£6.99 (£8.99)

2.5/5

Vidal Riesling 2009

I'm always on the lookout for good Riesling, and this has been recommended by various columnists.

It's quite good - very clean and crisp and citrusy. I would say it's lacking complexity - no petrol notes or loads of mouthfeel, but it's a young wine and the freshness makes up for it.

A bit pricey - for £8.99 I was expecting perhaps a bit more depth but it's classy enough.

Vidal
Riesling 2009
Marlborough, New Zealand
Oddbins
£8.99
3.5/5
Oddbins Discount Codes

Sainsbury's Limited Release Clare Valley Riesling 2009

I was at a foreign (as in north London) Sainsbury's on Saturday, and I saw this on the shelf. A Sainsbury's 'Limited Release' Clare Valley Riesling. Regular price: £5. Offer price: £3.99.

I've had a couple of other wines from this line, and some have been OK, others not so good. I love Riesling, and Australia's Clare Valley is as good a place as any to get it from.

This wine is terrible. It's from the class of Rieslings that don't taste like Riesling. No petrol, no citrus, maybe some pineapple, a bit of acidity. It could be anything. It was also dilute and a bit rough.

Fine, for this price 'drinkable' is probably as good as you are going to get. But what annoyed me is the screwcap. On the top of it are painted the words 'complex' and 'elegant'. Pardon? Maybe if it was a proper Clare Valley Riesling, and not some dilute plonk. I suppose this is an (not entirely misguided) attempt at making choosing a wine easier for the customer. It's neither complex or elegant, and I'm finding this 'Limited Release' line increasingly irritating.

Sainsbury's

Limited Release Riesling 2009

Clare Valley, Australia

£3.99 (£5)

2/5

Fairleigh Estate Riesling 2009

I've been a fan of New Zealand Riesling ever since discovering Spy Valley, especially the 2007. I haven't been able to replicate that experience however, even with subsequent vintages of Spy Valley, or any other Kiwi Riesling.

This isn't really any exception. It's nice - citrus notes, good acidity and a bit of residual sugar, but it lacks the petrol notes that I so love. Still, it'll do.

Made by Wither Hills.

Fairleigh Estate

Riesling 2009

Marlborough, New Zealand

Majestic

£6.99 when you buy 2 (£8.99)

3/5

Peter Lehmann Wigan Riesling 2003

A while ago, after I disapproved of one of their Chenin Blancs, a Peter Lehman winemaker suggested I try their Rieslings. I finally found one at Oddbins that looked like it was worth trying. It was heavily discounted - it was around £11 but normally went for about £16 (which seems overpriced to me).

It is a lovely wine indeed, and everything a good Eden Valley Riesling should be. It's citrus and petrol on the nose, and all minerals, lemon and a touch of kerosene on the palate, with good acidity. Delicious stuff - I need to work out the best food match for Aussie Rieslings, any suggestions?

Peter Lehmann

Wigan Riesling 2003

Eden Valley, Australia

Oddbins

£11

4/5

Jacob's Creek Riesling 2008

I guess it's either informed or snobby to avoid the entry-level Jacob's Creek wines. I can't say I regularly drink them, and to be honest they are getting to be a price where they have to start performing a bit better. The regular price of this is £6.99, which is my bread-and-butter price range. You can get some very nice wines in this range if you know what you're doing and take advantage of special offers.

Of course I didn't pay £6.99, I paid £5.19 (it's a big difference, price point-wise believe it or not). Jacob's Creek produces some good Riesling, from the award winning Reserve Riesling to the legendary Barossa Valley Steingarten Riesling. Why not try the entry-level wine? It's not too bad - it's not the type of Riesling that I love, but it's appley and crisp. It approaches plonk as it warms up in the glass though - you may want to keep it numb.

Not worth £7, but not too bad for a fiver.

Jacob's Creek

Riesling 2008

South Eastern Australia

Waitrose

£5.19 (£6.99)

2.5/5

Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Erstes Gewächs 2007

Just when I thought I had the German wine classification system all figured out, along comes this: a German 'first growth' from the Rheingau region.

A friend brought this over from a recent business trip to Frankfurt, purchased from a wine shop in the airport. While we were opening the bottle, I remarked that the label didn't specify what the ripeness level was (i.e. Kabinett, Spatlese, etc). It turns out that this wine uses a new classification system designed to simplify the choice for the consumer. "Erstes Gewächs" literally means "first growth" and indicates a wine of superior quality that meets stringent standards, is dry, and is made from a traditional grape variety. "Erstes Gewächs" is specific to the Rheingau region, and there are other designations for other regions. An explanation of all this can be found here.

The producer, Schloss Johannisberg, is a pioneer in the production of late harvest wines, and its coloured neck capsules which indicate ripeness level of the grapes used for the wine formed the basis of the German wine classification in 1971. In this case the capsule was silver, indicating "Erstes Gewächs", which confusingly doesn't indicate a ripeness level but instead a quality level.

Onto the wine. In truth, we found it underwhelming. It had good acidity and mouthfeel, but seemed very mild and lacking in concentrated flavours. It was a young wine (2007) - perhaps it needed more bottle age to develop? I think my friend paid about €40 for it, which possibly raised the expectations a little bit.

Schloss Johannisberg

Riesling "Erstes Gewächs" 2007

Rheingau, Germany

3/5

Ballast Stone 'Estate' Riesling 2007

I had this wine a couple of days ago while we were dining out at Bar Shu, a renowned Sichuan Chinese restaurant. Food writer and Chinese chef Fuchsia Dunlop is a consultant there, and since I own and cook out of two of her books, I have been wanting to try it for a long time.

The wine was a bit of a random choice, but it was between that, a New Zealand Gewurztraminer and an more-expensive Alsace Pinot Gris. I chose the Riesling as I thought that if it was half-decent, it would be quite neutral and food-friendly. I had never eaten at the restaurant before, and still didn't know what I was going to eat (aside from the starter I was munching on).

This Riesling is from a cool-climate, maritime region in South Australia called Currency Creek. I'd never heard of it and was a bit nervous about the choice until it arrived. It had at least 4 medal stickers on the bottle, and the first whiff of its rich, petrol-tinged aroma assured my I'd made a good choice. It very much resembles a Clare Valley style - bone dry, tart but with that good petrol character.

The wine was £28 in the restaurant, and I was shocked to see it for a little over £7 at a couple of UK wine merchants, although that was for the 2002 and 2003 vintages. This is a bargain - if Riesling was more fashionable this would be going for well over £10.

If anyone has every tried this wine, I'd like to hear what you think of it, the region, and any other wines you may have tried from there.

Ballast Stone

'Estate' Riesling 2007

Currency Creek, South Australia

4/5

Brotherhood Winery New York Riesling NV

A friend of mine went to New York on business recently, so I asked him to try and get some New York wine. Wine has been made in New York for almost 400 years, and some of it is apparently pretty good.

I mentioned Finger Lakes Riesling, because while knowing pretty much nothing about New York wine, I had heard that something resembling that had won some sort of medal/competition. However, my friend brought back this instead - what appears to be a non-vintage wine is a blue glass bottle. Basically, instead of discovering the Dr. Loosen of New York, he found the Blue Nun of New York.

Brotherhood is apparently "America's oldest winery". I don't know if this wine is the same one advertised on their website - the label looks different (this one says "New York" in big letters on the top) and I'm not really sure what's going on with the vintage. There is no vintage declared on the label, which leads me to assume it's a non-vintage wine. The wine itself isn't great - it's extremely fruity, ripe to the point of it tasting like rotten fruit. Not a lot in the way of complexity either. Some sweetness, which is fine but coupled with the overripe fruit taste it's a bit too much. Jon said this wine was 2 for $30 (US). That is, quite frankly, an enormous rip-off for a wine of this quality.

It would be nice if I had a bit more information about this. I love trying wines from different regions. This winery seems like it's a relic. They produce wines with names such as "Burgundy" and "Chablis" and "Sauterne". I'm sure that was fine 100 years ago, or even 30 years ago, but get with the times please. New York is a proper wine region in its own right - why sell wines under these fake French monikers? I'm sure this winery has a loyal following, and every one's happy with everything just how it is, but it could only help the image of New York wine to promote its own, unique identity.

Brotherhood Winery

New York Riesling NV

Washingtonville, New York

~$15

1.5/5

O'Leary Walker Polish Hill River Riesling 2008

The Polish Hill River in the Clare Valley region of Australia has a reputation for producing great Riesling. The first producer to do so was Jeffrey Grosset. I've never had his wine, but it comes highly recommended by just about everyone.

I saw this wine by boutique winery O'Leary Walker in Waitrose and decided to give it a try. It carries the Polish Hill reference in its name which is what got my attention, possibly to the chagrin of Mr. Grosset.

Anyhow, the wine is a typical Clare Valley style Riesling. It's quite dry, and has flavours and aromas of citrus, apples and pear along with a distinct tartness and crispness. I think I would prefer this to have a few years of bottle age on it. I like my Rieslings with a whiff of petrol and perhaps a hint of residual sugar. Still, it's a good wine and it seems good value as well, as the Grosset wines from the same area go for about double the price of this.

O'Leary Walker

Polish Hill River Riesling 2008

Clare Valley, Australia

Waitrose

£9.99

3.5/5

Brian Barry Juds Hill Riesling 2004

I went back to El Vino and bought a bunch more of the 2002 Brian Barry Riesling - but at the same time I bought a bottle of the 2004 to try.

This was like a different wine almost - it was what I would call a typical Clare Valley Riesling. Only a slight whiff of petrol on the nose, along with typical apple and citrus notes. On the palate it was fairly light and spritzy with good bit of acidity. Not as concentrated, intense or as long as the 2002.

For what it's worth we tried another bottle of the 2002 - and I had a different experience with it time. It seemed a lot more palatable - less petrol and more fruit. Either way the 2002 is the bargain of the century - I spent £31 and came out with 7 bottles of good Riesling.

Brian Barry

Juds Hill Riesling 2004

Clare Valley, Australia

El Vino

3/5

£7.75