I have already alluded to a particularly interesting recent tasting in London’s curiously monolithic Australia House which pitched some top Australian Riesling, Shiraz, Viognier and Pinot Noir against some of the best of the rest in blind mortal combat (see Jaboulet and Trimbach trounced by the likes of Jacobs Creek – strange but true).
This was my favourite Riesling in a line-up which included Grosset, Leasingham, Pewsey Vale, and Steingarten from Australia as well as Trimbach from Alsace and the famous Hirtzberger, star of Austria's Wachau. Here’s my note as taken before I knew what it was:
18 [points out of 20] Drink now-2012
Quite deep gold. Light, clean, quite floral nose. Opulent, very full, could be Austrian, Lots of alcohol but great balance. Definitely a food wine. Tingly and exciting. Elephant on a tightrope. Some richness but not a sweet wine. Whistle-clean and (added later) not desperately expensive for the quality.
Austria is making such truly excellent full bodied white wines today that I almost take it as a given and forget to recommend specific examples. This wine would stun any guests at your dinner table with its so-obvious combination of pure fruit, intensity and interest. It just has so much more to offer than most white wines and is perfectly engineered to go with food. It could happily be a main course wine if you’re planning a fish or chicken dish. Didn’t Tesco once have a wine called Great with Salmon..?
In the UK it is £15.99 from Philglas and Swiggot of Richmond and Clapham, Haslemere Cellar and Abbey Wines of Melrose in the Scottish Borders. The Theatre of Wine in Greenwich has a few bottles at £15.50. It can also be ordered by the case at £176.60 inc VAT (=£14.72 a bottle) from FWW Wines of London W5 (020 88567 1589).
Click here for international stockists and prices. (Prices in the US seem about the same as in the UK but prices in Germany seem much lower.)
I shall be publishing my tasting notes on all the wines in this Australia House tasting very soon on purple pages.