The Boutique Wine Lover's Wine Reviews and Wine Related Stories

What is it about with the "Noble rot"? A bit of history:
The late harvest wines are the most expensive wines made from Riesling. They are produced by letting the grapes hang on the vines well past normal harvest time. The fungus Botrytis cinerea, also known as "noble rot" causes evaporation (same effect by freezing, as in the case of ice wine (in German, Eiswein)). That means, water is removed. This results in wines with high concentration of sugar (in extreme cases hundreds of grams per litre), more acid (to give balance to all the sugar), more flavor, and more complexity. This allows the Riesling to be amongst the most long lived of all white wines. The beneficial use of "noble rot" was discovered in the late 18th century at Schloss Johannisberg. Permission from the Abbey of Fulda (which owned the vineyard) to start picking the grapes arrived too late and the grapes had begun to rot; yet it turned out that the wine made from them was still of excellent quality.
What is the history in Australia? Australia has long been known as the world's most important source of Riesling after Germany. In 1838 William Macarthur planted Riesling vines near Penrith (NSW). Riesling was the most planted white grape in Australia until the early 1990s when Chardonnay greatly increased in popularity. Riesling still flourishes in the Clare Valley, in particular the areas of Watervale and around the Polish Hill River, and the cooler Eden Valley where some sparkling Riesling is produced. The warmer Australian climate produces thicker skinned grapes, sometimes seven(!) times the thickness of German grown grape. The grapes ripening in free drain soil composed of red soil over limestone and shale, producing a lean wine that as it matures produces toasty, honeycomb and lime aromas and flavours. It is common for Australian Rieslings to be fermented at low temperatures in stainless steel tanks with no oxidation of the wine and followed by earlier bottling. Australian Rieslings are noted for their oily texture and citrus fruit flavors in their youth and a smooth balance of freshness and acid as they age. The botrytized Rieslings have immense levels of flavor concentrations that have been favorably compared to lemon marmalade. (Information taken from wikipedia.org)

BoutiqueWineries can offer you a wide range of Riesling. Up to 35 different Rieslings are listed from 24 different australian boutique wineries on our website www.BoutiqueWineries.com.au. Through this blog you see several Rieslings presented. They are (from the top to the bottom):

• Coonawarra Riesling from Abbey Rock in Adelaide
• Riesling from Belalie Bend in Southern Flinders Ranges
• Riesling from Boggy Creek Vineyard in King Valley wine region
  
• Riesling from Chatsfield Wines in Great Southern wine region
• High Eden Riesling from Eden Springs in the Eden Valley
• Riesling from Lankeys Creek Wines in the Tumbarumba wine region

Of course they present only a small portion of Rieslings we have on our website. There is still one Riesling I would like to recommend. This High Country Riesling is from one of our newest wineries, Snowy Vineyard Estate (Southern Regions in NSW). It is Australia's coldest vineyard, therefore its Riesling has this particular distinct characteristic of the crispy clean finish and the citrus flavours.

With this I would like to wish you a great weekend. Have a look at BoutiqueWineries, plenty of Rieslings are on special. BoutiqueWineries is the online website for boutique wineries in Australia.

Warm regards,
Josefine
BoutiqueWineries

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