Review: d’Arenberg The Dry Dam Riesling 2023

August 29, 2024

McLaren Vale Riesling is deadly uncool/an oddity, but this d’Arenberg The Dry Dam Riesling 2023 is sneakily good. It’s an awful lot of wine for $22, if unsubtle, with broad-brushed juicy green/red apple, preserved lemon, and just a little sweetness, with most of it in the mid-palate. Flavour? Plenty thanks. It’s not varietal and hardly a classic South Aussie ‘Bickford and acid’ style, but it’s both intense and long. Don’t underestimate it.

THE VERDICT

Best drinking: now. But this will last if history is a guide
Score (out of 20): 17
Score (out of 100): 90
Alcohol %: 10.5
RRP (in $AUD): 22
Winery website: https://www.darenberg.com.au/
Would I buy it?: a glass, ice cold

2023, McLaren Vale, Riesling, Wine

Andrew Graham was once voted the 23rd most trusted wine critic on the planet. A WCA Journalism Young Gun now old hack with 25yrs as a buyer, judge, journalist, marketer and too much more.

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2 responses to “Review: d’Arenberg The Dry Dam Riesling 2023”

Teddy Brown

August 29, 2024 at 5:24 pm

Always jags a gold somewhere on the circuit due to it having a solid dose of rs. Plus it ages remarkably well as a result of that sugar.
Also there used to be bulk acres of Riesling in McLaren Vale before the scourge of Chardonnay weirdly being an even less climatically unsuitable variety got planted.

Reply
1. Andrew Graham
  
  August 29, 2024 at 5:40 pm
  
  Bizzare to think that Sauv used to be so widely planted in the Vale. Or how much sparkling came out in the old Seaview days too. Man, what a time.
  
  Reply