During long runs, when my internal monologue is the main thing to keep me company, I wonder about questions liks this.
Why do people fawn over aged reds, when there is just as much (if not more) deliciousness, profundity, and naked terroir expression in great unoaked whites like this Pewsey Vale The Contours Riesling 2015?
That’s a weird thing to be thinking about when I’m running, I’ll give you that. But it’s also a fair call, and pondering odd rhetorical questions (like why do people with sunny, north facing roofs not have solar panels?) is what I do.
When you think about it, it’s not like the terroir is inferior. The Pewsey vineyard has proven superstar cred. Admittedly, the winemaking skill here is more about preserving freshness than trying to blend or craft or massage. But that shouldn’t detract from the glory of the finished wine.
So really, it’s just about fashion. Aged reds must be better because they’re red. Or something.
This 2015 ‘Museum Release’ is a magnificent dry Riesling too. It feels special. Something beyond just another white wine. There are these multiple shades of flavour and development to nose and palate that make it an experience. At once, you call it toasty and mouthfilling. But the cut of lime juice acidity also means it tastes young and taut. Fresh-faced and contemporary. Mature yet not old. Still greenish and still a wine in motion.
In the context of Contours, this 2015 is par for the course. Another great release, though maybe not the absolute best (just a bit full for that). It’s just that the Contour standard is so bloody high that a ‘very good’ wine here is, to use a lame golf nod, a hole in one for great dry Australian Riesling.
Yet trying to buy a wine like this (or indeed equivalent aged Sem etc) is too easy, when it should be a tightly allocated tussle.
Ultimately, I don’t have the answers about this Resling’s popularity (or not). But I do know it’s a glorious drink for comparatively few dollars.
Best drinking: now to ten plus if you want. 12.5%, $40. 18.7/20, 95/100. Pewsey Vale website. Would I buy it? Shit yeah.
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