RIESLING: REST OF THE NEW WORLD
2018 Gold 2 Silver 6 Bronze 1 Commended 1
2017 Gold 2 Silver 3 Bronze 0 Commended 4
How do you like your Riesling? Dry? Medium? Rather sweet? Linear? Fuller flavoured? Citrusy? Petrolly? Well, whatever your predilection, there is something for you in this lot. While the Aussies seem to have nailed their Riesling style, New Zealand, in particular, is a bit all over the place. Not in a bad way – there’s plenty of good wine – but it can be disconcerting for both somms and customers.
That, though, was the only negative in this section, which had lots of nice stuff and pricing that, for the most part, was very good. We found a wonderful spread of medals here from not much above house wine to the Konstantin ‘Godfather of Finger Lakes’ Frank at £16.
Big shout out to Apaltagua, too – its Zapallar Reserva Riesling made Gold for the second year on the trot – a superb performance for that price.
FROM THE TASTING TEAMS
‘In the rest of the New World they’re more into dry Riesling, but nowadays New Zealand is trying to copy the German off-dry style. And that’s a good thing.’ Erik Simonics, La Dame de Pic at Four Seasons
‘A consumer might look here for freshness, but the flight we tasted was a mix of kerosene and off-dry styles. I think that off-dry style is particularly marketable. People often look to New Zealand now because it’s trendy, so I think these would stand out on a wine list.’ Piers Gibson-Birch, Wernher Restaurant at Luton Hoo Hotel Golf & Spa
‘These Rieslings from New Zealand are slightly distinct from the others, with fresher and riper citrus fruits. They were quite expensive, but when Riesling is good you pay for it.’ Joseph Lunn, Suave Wine