I’ve been steering clear of Riesling since my return from the Mosel. Not that I’m sick of it; indeed, quite the opposite. I enjoyed the Rieslings there so much I’ve been hesitant to dive back into different expressions of the grape. For my return foray, I opened this, an older wine and one that I’ve documented here on Full Pour in the past.

As with my tasting in 2008, this bottle had a Stelvin cap that was fairly welded onto the bottle. It shed a fair bit of crust once I finally wrangled the thing loose. You’d never know it from the condition of the wine, though, which was pristine and youthful.

Shockingly youthful, in fact. Clearly, wines do develop under screwcap (let us not even entertain the contrary notion), but if this wine is any indication they can age slowly, gracefully and cleanly. I don’t regard any of these attributes as bad; indeed the wine exploded from my glass with a mixture of fresh and tertiary aromas. Lime, toast, honey, spice; a range of notes that are both totally correct and very fine. I’ve tasted some Australian Rieslings that showed an unattractive broadness in middle age; this, though, is still tight and linear, even as its developed flavours express.

In the mouth, still taut with acid and lean of line. I don’t imagine this was one of those especially intense wines as a youngster, which translates to a fairly gentle experience now in terms of impact and density of flavour. Unlike the Elizabeth Semillon I had the other day, this wine’s lack of intensity sits better within its style. This is about lightness of countenance and delicacy above all else.

Welcome back.

Leasingham
Price: N/A
Closure: Stelvin
Source: Retail