Robert Stein Reserve Riesling 2010 (Mudgee, NSW)
12.5%. Screwcap, $45
Source: Sample
www.robertstein.com.au

Robert Stein Reserve Riesling 2010

Now Riesling is hardly the first wine that comes to mind when you think of ‘Mudgee’, yet there is some smart examples coming from the region. The key ingredient perhaps to the unexpected success of the region is actually altitude, with plenty of Mudgee’s vines sitting at some surprising heights. Witness, for example, the Louee vineyard, which is located within the Mudgee boundaries and sits at an astonishing 1100m above sea level, making it (apparently) the highest altitude vineyard in Australia.

This wine is also listed as being from a high altitude vineyard, which perhaps explains why it is so good (given that Riesling typically needs the cooler conditions that altitude brings).

It’s a fuller style Riesling this, built riper and fuller than many of its ilk, yet in this context it works quite nicely. On the nose it shows grapefruit, orange and some fruit tingle residual sweetness, set quite full and ripe, though not fat. The palate too is unashamedly weighty, which became really apparent as my glass warmed up (it’s steamy in Sydney tonight), but not without substance. That weight is all about generous orange and tangerine fruit, plus some rather well handled residual sugar (6g/l and looking quite apt) and mid weight acidity. The few criticisms that I can see is that this is a hardly a delicate wine (which may polarise) and that the price is very high indeed.

Otherwise there is much to like her. It’s a rather generous Riesling that sits quite a way out of the normal, Clare/Eden-centric frameset, but does so with style. I’m happy to say that I actually quite enjoyed drinking this. 17.6/92