Riesling

Riesling is an elegant wine which shows great versatility and harmony with food. It should be one of the most popular wines in Australia, whether drunk in its youth or with bottle age, but in some parts of the country there has been resistance to its virtues, due to past mismanagement and maybe also because of many people’s obsession with Chardonnay. Clare Valley and Eden Valley in South Australia and the Great Southern district of Western Australia have elevated this grape variety to a world-class standard. In many ways, riesling is the great unsung hero of the wine world, the cornerstone of our white-wine industry. Made mainly as a ‘dry style’ with long, almost searing acidity in its youth, it is a wine that gives outstanding structure to a wide range of food preparations. It can be drunk as a fresh, youthful, limey-style wine with good fruit character, but as the Clare Valley producers have shown, it develops some beautiful characteristics as it ages.