Our 2022 Riesling is immediately appealing – limes, lemons, mandarin and exotic spices abound on the nose. The fruit profile is incredibly pure and precise. The palate shows a similar fruit profile that combines with a saltiness that offers a salivating alignment between a hint of sweetness and refreshing acidity giving a long and dry finish.
With an abundance of citrus fruit flavours, a slight sweetness on the mid palate and lovely salty acidity this wine is ideal with Asian dishes that have some spice and chilly influence or fresh seafood dishes. The wine is delicious and refreshing served chilled.
2022 was a long, extended vintage. A hot and dry early summer provided a good fruit set and expectation of quality. Mid-summer, New Zealand experienced a run of cooler, cloudy days with some periods of rain in March that extended the ripening period and pushed out harvest by 2 weeks from normal. This enabled the fruit to fully ripen and be picked with optimum flavour. The Riesling was 100% handpicked on 20th April from both the J and P Riesling Blocks. The picking period was driven partially by yield and fruit condition but also because of the many different block locations and aspects on the vineyard which provide a nice array of variables and options at blending. We wanted to achieve a wine that displays purity and a sense of place. With that in mind, the wine was fermented cool with a long slow fermentation to retain fruit aroma then stopped when we felt the balance between the acidity, fruit intensity and residual sugar was aligned. The Riesling was left on gross lees for 20 days post fermentation to provide texture and weight. The wine is un-fined and was bottled in mid-September.
The Riesling is planted on the Southern part of the vineyard on North facing slopes. All our Riesling is hand-thinned where required, hand-picked, and processed at the Mt Beautiful winery on site. The planted clones are a mix of GM239, GM110 and GM198 on 3309 and 101-14 rootstock. The Riesling blocks are run organically. Given the small crop, both blocks and clones were fermented together however the flavour profile, Brix and acidity of both blocks were very similar at harvest.
Riesling Vineyard Stats:
Planted 2005-2006
2 blocks, 0.66 ha (1.6 ac)
44 rows, 2,951 vines
Spacing: @2.4 x 1.05 m
Yield: 5 T/ha (2.0 T/ac)
Alcohol 11.5%
TA 8.0 g/L
RS 10 g/L
pH 2.83
Bottled: 29 September 2022
Production: 170 cases
Off-Licence:
Name of the licence holder: Dionysus Ventures Limited
Licence number: 57/OFF/411/2025
Licence expiry date: 27 February 2028
Our Off Licence
