3 Stones Riesling

3 Stones Riesling 2007

Coming from New Zealand's North Island, from Hawke's Bay to be exact - this wine was a great surprise upon opening. Riesling is, as we all know, one of the all time great grapes of both Alsace and Germany and to be honest, I didn't expect much to come from this specimen, especially having recently had some very fine Alsacien nectar.

First of all it makes a great apéritif as the wine is only 11% (due to the cool New Zealand climate) - well done in my opinion, we need more wines like this. On the nose, a huge surprise - nice oily, diesel aromas spring from the glass (Riedel Riesling of course), aromas, which one would normally associate with well aged German or Alsacian wines and not from a 2 year old Kiwi one (and definately not from one, which costs half the price of a lot of the aforementioned wines). In the mouth we have a nice gras texture, that almost fatty sensation one gets from a fine chardonnay for example. Notes of crushed lime are evident on the palate - the back label really doesn't lie. It was like a vinous Caprihinia on the tongue. There was also a certain acidity there , which counterbalanced the gras feeling very well, the fattiness also cloaking to a certain extent the acidity - a very well balanced wine.

It's true to say that Riesling has, in a fashion, fallen out of wine drinker's vogue, which is a great shame. The profilic aussie winemaker, Mr Wolf Blass recently told Decanter magazine, that he thinks Australian wine makers should concentrate on Riesling instead of producing wines from every other possible grape variety under the sun. I'd be more than happy to taste some of these wines providing they were as good as this one.

Keith