Thursday, November 5, 2009

CLONAKILLA RIESLING 2009

 - Canberra District
 - $24-$32
 - Screwcap
 - 12.5%alc

Victoria's Henty district, WA's Great Southern and Tasmania all pose serious threats to dethroning South Australia's Clare and Eden Valleys as Australian riesling benchmarks. Additionally, with committed winemakers like Ken Helm at Helm and Clonakilla's Tim Kirk, it's inevitable that Canberra will soon join the charge.

Clonakilla's 2009 Riesling opens to a faintly floral, musky perfume of orange blossom, white pear and lime with a steely aspect. Holding terrific line and shape, its well proportioned but elegant palate announces wonderful textural complexity and concentration, revealing clean, juicy flavours of apple and citrus with a refreshingly racy cut of crystalline acids. The wine evolves into a very appealling, balanced, rather taut and savoury finish underscored by notes of slate and wet stone. 

üComplex and mineral accented; varietal yet savoury, this handsomely measures up to Australia's best. It's full of compelling charm. The more I drink the more I like. Drink to 2019.
94 points


2 comments:

  1. That's a gorgeous green dragon. Sounds like the wine's even better though!

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  2. Thanks for the comment :) I felt the green dragon matched the green label of Clonakilla's Riesling as well as the 'mysticism' surrounding Clonakilla wines.

    p.s. I'm starting to run out of items to photograph next to wine bottles, I'm going to have to get rather 'creative' soon ;)

    Cheers,
    Chris P

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