The Riesling is our baby, in the sense that it was the first wine we produced and launched to the public. It is textural and mineral, ripe and off-dry with flavours of citrus, sweet almond blossom and wet wool. The citrus notes meld together with crisp, minerality and a floral character on the palate. It finishes with a beautiful, lingering acidity. This wine is made by blending together two distinct blocks of Riesling from the vineyard.
Pair our Mt. Beautiful Riesling with fresh New Zealand Scallops, other seafood, spicy dishes, and a laissez-faire outlook or drink on its own on a warm afternoon!
2019 was a good growing season with excellent flowering and plentiful water supply. The spring was warm and dry flowering took place in exceptional conditions. This led to very good fruit set. The latter part of the growing season was rather unsettled. A thorough green harvest was done to lower the crop, eliminate clumping of bunches and any potential disease threats. The lead up to harvest saw some rain in February and March that led to considerable disease pressure. We did some further bunch thinning removing diseased bunches. However the cleanest fruit came from a block that we had started to trial organic management in.
We did an early pick of very clean fruit on 31st March followed by selective picks of the Riesling ensuring only clean ripe fruit was harvested on 10th 13th and 14th April. The grapes were whole bunch pressed, with the free run and pressings kept separate. The juice was settled for 36 hours only, to retain some cloudiness in the juice, this contributes to texture and aroma. The juices were then cool fermented using aromatic yeast. The ferment was stopped when we achieved a balance of sugar and acid. Balance is everything in winemaking. The wine was aged on light yeast lees for a few months, before racking, blending and bottling.
The Riesling is planted on the higher elevated Southern section of the vineyard bordered by gullies, with the gully to the west being an established pine forest creating a warm sheltered block. The Riesling is closely planted, and has been split into two blocks with the lower block being spur pruned and the higher larger block single cane pruned to reduce vigor and maximize flavor. Like several of our other blocks we tend and harvest this block by hand. These plantings focus on German Geisenheim clone Gm 239, backed by clones Gm 198 and then Gm 110, which provide a classically elegant wine with mandarin, lime and lemon flavors.
Riesling Vineyard Stats:
Planted 2005
2 blocks, 2.63 ha (6.5 ac)
92 rows, 10,570 vines
Spacing: @2.4 x 1.05 m
Yield: 7 T/ha (2.8 T/ac)
Alcohol 11.0%
TA 6.8 g/L
RS 12 g/L
pH 3.08
Bottled: September 2019
Production: 561 cases
Off-Licence:
Name of the licence holder: Dionysus Ventures Limited
Licence number: 57/OFF/411/2023
Licence expiry date: 27 February 2025
Our Off Licence
