Wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Wine

We had a very healthy turnout for today's lunch, which included salmon by Chilly Hargrave and a parade of Rieslings from Australia and Germany. Overall, the food and wine pairing were a great success. See the food report for details. 

We got festivities underway with two Chardonnays, one from Margaret River and the other from France a White Burgundy. The first was a Suckfizzle, be careful how you say this, from Stella Bella 2021 and the French wine was from Albert Bichot, a Macon Milly 2020. Both these wines were quite acceptable as an aperitif drink, however, my choice was the French wine, better balanced and with a more delicate flavour. We then moved on to the wines for our lunch. First was a Grosset Polish Hill, Clare, Riesling 2024, 12.1%. Without a doubt, it is the youngest wine we have ever drank at a WFS lunch. To my thinking, the wine was difficult to drink now, but I hold great hopes for its future. All of the key structures were in place to produce a cracker in 5/6 years' time. An ugly duckling now, but just wait until about 2030! This wine has huge potential.  We then passed onto a bracket of excellent German Rieslings from the renowned producers Johannisberg and Egon Muller. The first two were both from 2021, 11% and 13%, with the Egon Muller considerably older at 2010, 9.5%. 

In my view, all three wines were excellent in their balance of fruit, acid and residual sugar. Mouth-filling for sure, but not cloying and finishing with a smooth clean finish. Of the first two, I rather fancied the first, the Kabinett.  These two wines set the stage for the star of the show, the Egon Muller 9.5%, what a wine! This producer is hailed as one of Germany's finest in the production of high quality Rieslings. From the Mosel River region, this wine was simply superb in terms of its fruit/acid balance, showing no sign of age, still fresh and showing some delicate citrus flavours in harmony with the slightly sweetish but clean lingering finish. A magnificent wine! Many thanks, Wine Master.   Before I leave the German wines, I should say how impressed I was with their corks. I was on wine opening duties. All three were under cork, and I observed how solid their corks were, in most cases the same length size cork you would find in a top growth Bordeaux.  These corks were made to last for decades. After this brief stopover in Germany, we then returned to Australia to finish the afternoon with some aged local Rieslings. I wish we had not, I was quite happy to stay in the Mosel region!  Coming home proved to be a sad affair.

Our homecoming welcome was a huge letdown in the form of two bottles of one of my favourite local Rieslings, the Seppelt Drumborg, vintages 2007 and 1998.  If you were addressing these wines as an ageing old girlfriend, you would think to yourself, "my darling how you have let yourself go". The 2007 still had some signs of life sealed under Stelvin but is drinking 10 years beyond its best date say 2014. The poor old 98, cork sealed, had probably died and was buried in or about 2010, and was exhumed for this occasion, the Festival of Rieslings, I wish it had been left undisturbed. The bottle on our table was to me undrinkable, oxidised, maderized and nasty.  Because I personally regard Drumborg Rieslings amongst my top picks for this wine, it proved to be a disappointing ending to an otherwise great afternoon.