AlanK off the forum put this tasting together, fascinating topic and his contacts at the Golden Bauhinia came up with a great dinner menu and polished service that fascilitated the tasting.
HONG KONG WINES SOCIETY TASTING
Classic Dry Rieslings – Germany Vs. Australia
Golden Bauhinia Restaurant, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, April 12th 2012 7:30 pm
Piesporter Goldtroepfchen, Wehlen Sonnenuhr, GraacherHimmelreich, Scharzhofberger etc
We are of course all familiar with the great vineyards for off-dry Rieslings, but what do you know about the great vineyards for dry Rieslings?
We feel that this is a good opportunity to provide a first class snapshot of what is currently happening in the world of top quality dry Rieslings. Needless to say all these wines are very rare and only exist because one of our potential members, Alan Kwok, has made this a particular area of interest.
In this tasting, we will have a look at the single vineyard wines from two outstanding producing regions – Germany and Western Australia. We will be looking at wines from Frankland Estate (Great Southern, Western Australia), and some of the best Grosses Gewaechs (GG) Rieslings (aka Single Vineyard, Great Growth Rieslings) from Germany.
Frankland Estateis now recognized as one of the greatest New World sources of Riesling wines. Developments at Frankland Estate in recent years symbolize Australia’s continuous movement towards more elegant, food friendly Rieslings with a clear “sense of place”.
The new German VDP classification of Grosses Gewaechs epitomizes the German movement towards single vineyard wines which are more and more powerful, probably only made possible with the help of global warming! There are seven classic GG wines in the tasting below all from classic vintages in the 2000’s.
The tasting will be followed by a delightful dinner at the Golden Bauhinia, the celebrated Cantonese restaurant in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Tasting Wines:
Australia
Frankland Estate (Great Southern, Western Australia):
1999 Isolation Ridge Riesling
2008 Isolation Ridge Riesling
2010 Poison Hill Riesling
2010 Netley Road riesling
2010 Isolation Ridge Riesling
Germany
Weingut Schafer Froehlich (Nahe, Germany):
2007 Felsenberg GG Riesling
2008 Felseneck GG Riesling (NOTE: Gault Millau’s top dry riesling of the 2008 year)
2009 Felseneck GG Riesling
Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl (Pfalz, Germany)
2007 Forster Jesuitengarten GG Riesling
Herzog von Wuettemberg (Wuerttemberg, Germany)
2009 Maulbronner Eilfingerberg GG Riesling
Weingut Graf Adelmann (Wuerttemberg, Germany)
2005 Suessmund GG Riesling
Weingut Keller (Rheinhassen, Germany)
2010 Westhofener Kirchspiel GG Riesling
Dinner Wines:
The highly rated 2007 Van Volxem Scharzhofberger (Mosel, Germany) – see notes below
And some classic Burgundies and Italian wines to go with the dinner menu!!
2007 Joseph Roty Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Les Fontenys
1999 Domaine Jacque Cacheaux Echezeaux
2005 Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella Superiore
Menu:
龍皇金縷衣
Deep-fried Prawn Coated with Mashed Squid
and Shredded Pastry
燒汁松茸法邊豆炒黑豚肉
Sautéed Black Pork,String Beans and Matsutake Mushroom
with Teriyaki Sauce
紅炆枝竹鮑魚龍躉球
Braised Giant Garoupa Fillet, Abalone and Bean Curd Stick
豉汁雙葱爆牛柳條
Pan-fried Beef Fillet with Shallot and Onion in Black Bean Sauce
碧綠八寶扒大鴨
Braised Duck with Chestnut, Barley, Mushroom and Salty Egg Yolk
台式肉操麵
Noodleswith Minced Pork Served with Superior Broth
中外滙粹
Mango Pudding Accompanied by Pineapple and Shredded Coconut Pastry
Background Information:
Frankland Estate
Frankland Estate, located on Frankland River, is widely acknowledged as one of the top Riesling producers in Australia. This is the coolest and most isolated (273 km from Margaret River) in Western Australia.
Interestingly, Frankland Estate is one of the few wineries in Australia with a “zero acid addition” policy, resulting in balanced wines with a typical natural finish which one can easily picked in a blind tasting of Australian wines.
There are three single vineyard Rieslings here: Isolation Ridge, Poison Hill, and Netley Road, all located within 25 kilometers of each others.
Isolation Ridgeis the main vineyard and the flagship wine here, where organic viticulture was practiced from 2005. This vineyard sits high on an ironstone ridge with ancient duplex soils of gravel and loam over a clay sub-soil. The first vines were planted in 1988.
Poison Hillis named because Heartleaf Clover is found on the slopes of its hill. This clover is poisonous to all but indigenous animals and posed a threat to the sheep of early settlers! The vineyard has predominantly clay soils and this is reflected in exotically perfumed wines with a silky texture and gentle earthy flavours. Needless to say the wines are anything but poisonous!
Netley Roadwas planted in 1966 and is one of the oldest vineyards in the Great Southern area. Fruits used to go to a mass produced wine from the Constellation wines but the Frankland estate term took over a part of this vineyard a couple of years ago and bottled this single vineyard wine. Ironstone ridge runs north to south and vines are facing the east of this ridge, allowing them to capture the early morning sun. Tasters have found that this is typically the most intense/zesty of the three Frankland single vineyard Rieslings.
Grosses Gewaechs Rieslings
The classification of Grosses Gewaechs (or Ersters Gewaechs in Rheingau) was introduced by the VDP in 1996 (and in typical German fashion, only agreed by all VDP members in 2006) to designate top-level dry wines from the best vineyard sites, even sometimes individual parcels within a vineyard appellation.
Apart from being dry (max residual sugar level 9 g/l), the wines must meet the following criteria:
- Choice of grape variety is restricted.
- Maximum yield: 50 hl/ha.
- Minimum must weight: equivalent to Spätlese.
- Selective harvesting by hand.
- Wines are produced according to traditional methods.
In many ways, the concept of Grosses Gewaechs it is a controversial classification, as it raises the question if Riesling fermented to <9 g/l residual sugar is really the best representation of the terroir at the designated vineyard sites.
We have therefore selected the 2007 Van Volxem Scharzhofberger as our dinner wine – this is a winery which decided not to bottle their Riesling as Grosses Gewaechs (<9 g/l residual sugar ) nor Kabinett (30-60 g/l residual sugar), but as the second tier “Lagenweine”, because they believe this is the best expression of Scharzhofberger’s terroir.