Several of the bottles hadn’t lasted the journey, but those that did tasted wonderful. Three decades on cork, a single cork, had enabled the Leo Buring DW B15 Eden Valley Riesling 1972 to develop in a way that had to be seen to be believed. Mature, complex and savoury, to be sure, but also vital, fresh and able to deliver a punch. Makes you wonder about the shape the same wine might have been in had it been sealed with a screwtop. You’d certainly expect a significantly greater hit rate of bottles tasting at their optimum at this age, but how would the taste of the wine compare? My experience with old bottles of Stelvin-sealed Yalumba-produced riesling suggests that the wine would look at least as good as it did if sealed that way. More importantly, the use of screwtop seals might mean that wines of slightly lesser quality than this redoubtable Leo Buring classic might actually develop as well as this wine has. Furthermore, you would be less likely to experience the degree of variation commonly witnessed when several bottles of wine of this development are opened at once. I, for one, find absolutely no charm whatsoever in the ‘bottle variation’ still extolled by some people. If a wine tastes anything less than to its full potential, something is wrong. Nothing more, nothing less. But this is not a story about cork. It is about riesling. For this time the media got it right. Dead on. Nailed it. If ever there was a time to renew faith in Australian riesling, that time is now. Open just one of the classic new wines from Clare Valley from 2002 and believe again. Bit by bit, riesling has begun to reclaim its lost place amongst the classic wines of Australia. An early casualty of chardonnay’s conquest of Australian wine, it was quickly relegated to also-ran status, languishing far behind wines like sauvignon blanc, blends between sauvignon blanc and semillon and even that tragic spinster of modern wine, unwooded chardonnay. As its image lost its shine, so did its makers lose their enthusiasm. With their enthusiasm went their attention to detail and their focus and, inevitably, its quality. Some riesling makers large and small, Grosset and Orlando being paramount amongst them, never lost their desire to make the best riesling possible. In the wine media, many of whom are still bored witless by the dull and unchanging landscape of so much Australian chardonnay, they found willing allies as they attempted to restore riesling’s pride and ultimately its fortunes. A campaign began, spearheaded by makers like Frankland Estate in Western Australia whose international riesling tastings have helped renew Australian acquaintances with the great rieslings of Europe. Riesling’s awareness has been hugely assisted by the well-publicised willingness of so many makers to opt for a screwtop seal in favour of cork. The missing link, until now, has been the absence of large volumes of excellent riesling expressing a range of classic styles at affordable and accessible prices. Strangely enough, the 2002 vintage, largely one of the meanest for genuinely high quality wines for several years, has certainly delivered, especially from the Australian heartland of riesling, the Clare and Eden Valleys of South Australia. The very factors that made life so difficult for growers in many regions further south than Clare have produced a signature vintage in South Australia, Clare especially. Its crops were initially reduced slightly by coolish, damp weather that delayed and upset flowering, while summer continued mild but dry, extending ripening back into autumn. Fruit ultimately developed with higher levels of both sugar and natural acid levels than traditional, but the benefit of this extended ripening shows clearly in the exceptional intensity and expression of fruit, much of which has reached unbelievable levels of brightness and concentration. So while 2002 is anything but a typical vintage for these areas, it is one you should quickly experience. Speaking generally, it was a classic cool climate riesling vintage in South Australia, so the wines express a profoundly different set of flavours than usual. As a group they are exceptionally fragrant and floral, with hints of cool climate traminer-like musk on occasions. There’s a greater focus on pear and apple fruit, along with the expected range of lemon-lime citrus qualities. The wines are rounder, juicier and altogether more sumptuous. Fans of Alsatian riesling, or even the better rieslings from New Zealand and Tasmania, will know exactly what I mean. Their remarkable acids are expressed as a long, lingering slate/mineral finish, while the best of the Eden Valley wines retain their classic bathpowder, talc-like backbone of fine phenolics. If ever there was a vintage to win you back to Australian riesling, 2002 is that vintage. Its best wines are drinking wonderfully well now in their youth, but show every sign that they will cellar beautifully for many years. And from a value perspective, they’ve really put chardonnay right under the blowtorch.
