This medium styled RIesling is produced by Greystone Wines, a family owned winery in the Waipara Valley, the heart of North Canterbury. Greystone is one of North Canterbury's wine stars situated on the slopes of limestone rich hills in Omihi. All of the grapes that go into Greystone wines are 100% certified organic with BioGro NZ and all are estate grown. No additional fruit is purchased to supplement production, which is one of many incremental steps that go into Greystone's high quality wines. 

Greystone Riesling is one of our faves here in store and is a medium style with a nice balance of 23 grams per litre of residual sugar, which off sets the bright acidity and ensures that the overall flavours and style of the wine works in harmony. It contains 13% ABV and was made from grapes that contained a relatively low 8% botrytis, which adds weight and flesh to the wine. 

Certified organic with BioGro NZ.

About Greystone

The Greystone wine story began in 2000 when the Thomas Family bought an old sheep farm on the Omihi hills in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The rolling limestone hills lured this family in and their goal was a single minded one: to make great wines from the limestone rich soils here. Fast forward 20 years and Greystone is one of the great (and, some might say, yet to be fully discovered) wineries in this outstanding wine region. Not least due to the work of winemaker Dom Maxwell and general manager Nick Gill, who began working together in 2005 and has grown along with the brand and quality. 

Dr John Forrest is a Riesling lover and that shines through in this deliciously honeyed lime zest and green apple tasting sweet wine. This luscious sweetie was made entirely from Riesling grapes which were late harvested and heavily botrytis effected. Botrytis is a form of rot, often known as 'noble rot' because it can make grapes and wines taste utterly succulent and delicious. It shrivels the grapes, concentrating the flavours of the juicy inside, creating less of it for winemaking but more intense flavours. Riesling works well as a grape for this purpose because it has naturally high acidity, which balances the flavours and sweetness of the wine. 

Palliser Riesling is one of Martinborough's best kept white wine secrets and has texture and depth from 10% of the grapes being fermented in oak, with the balance in stainless steel and a finished residual sugar of 13.5 grams, which means this wine is medium dry - but it tastes crisp, citrusy and has great length. The finish is fresh and dry. 

Grapes in this wine come from Om Santi Vineyard (51%), with the balance split between Pinnacles and Palliser Vineyards.  

In conversion to organic certification.

Great Central Otago Riesling in a medium dry, succulent, deliciously drinkable style with flavours of lime zest and lemon. Dicey Wines is owned by the Dicey brothers, Matt and James, whose parents were pioneers of viticulture and winemaking in Bannockburn, Central Otago, when they co-founded Mt Difficulty Wines.

Meticulous handling and low yield farming create an elegant, concentrated Riesling from Central Otago producer, Prophet's Rock. Vinification methods used in this wine draw heavily from Alsatian winemaking. This is a wine rich with lemon and floral notes, with an underlying mineral backbone. 

This tasty dry Riesling comes from the beautiful windswept vineyard owned by Craggy Range in the sweepingly stunning Te Muna Road in Martinborough. 

The grapes in this wine were 100% whole bunch pressed and fermented in a  combination of stainless steel and large oak cuves with 100% innoculated yeasts.

The wine was matured for four months before bottling. It's fresh, youthful, vibrant and zingy with intense lime and green apple flavour notes, a medium body and long finish. It drinks beautifully now and will age superbly for at least five to six years. 

Valli Riesling is inspired by the great whites of the Mosel Valley in Germany. Winemaker Grant Taylor describes this vintage as having flavours of freshly squeezed lime juice, Granny Smith apple with hints of chalk and jasmine flower. 

Valli Wines was founded by Central Otago winemaker Grant Taylor in 1998 and has since become one of the most collectible Pinot Noir brands in New Zealand with four distinctly different Pinot Noirs made every year from four key sub regions in Central Otago. Grant is the only winemaker producing a consistently diverse range of wines every vintage with each wine made the same way so that the wines each express the climate and soil variations in the areas from which they come from.

Black Estate - This Riesling is grown on the rolling slopes of our Damsteep Vineyard.  The site's dense clay and mineral limestone provide weight, texture and salivating freshness.  A true character.

Tasting Note:

 A pure and exact expression from these venerable vines in their 32nd season. Grown on free-draining alluvial soils, the fruit from this block yields a wine with characteristic delicacy and precision. Beguiling notes of elderflower, mint and kiwifruit waft over a palate that is perfectly poised; the balance of sugar and acid is so harmonious as to integrate both components into the wine in their entirety. Fresh, filigree, and weightless. 

Introduction:

 Commencing with meticulous site selection and vineyard design in 1991, Felton Road's story is one of refusal to compromise. A strict 100% estate policy with fully organic and biodynamic viticulture (BioGro and Demeter certified) ensures that our fruit arrives at the winery as pure as it can be, while our entire estate comes as close to true sustainability as is possible. A commitment to hands off winemaking: gravity flow; indigenous yeasts and malolactic; an avoidance of fining and filtration; all help preserve the wine's expression of its terroir. The result is Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which accurately express the authenticity and complexity of our unique vineyards. Gareth King; Viticulturist, Blair Walter; Winemaker, Nigel Greening; Proprietor. 

Vineyard & Viticulture:

 Felton Road farms four properties totaling 34 ha in the Bannockburn subregion of Central Otago. Blocks 2 and 4 are located on gravel fans within the Elms Vineyard with deep soils of angular schist gravels. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity.

Vintage:

 Abundant rain in September and October replenished soil-water reserves. After a later than average budbreak, the vines grew well until a katabatic frost, the most extensive in twenty years, struck the vineyards on 3 November. Fortunately, losses were localised within vineyards and occurred early enough in the season for many vines to recover. A benign, settled period coincided with flowering and a successful fruit set did much to compensate for the damage from the frost. Summer saw even temperatures and a protracted dry period, which served to slow down ripening and concentrate flavours. After February finished with a warm flourish, the weather cooled distinctly, especially at night. Harvest was a game of patience, particularly for Riesling. The slow and measured conclusion of ripening has endowed the wines with an impressive breadth to complement their characteristic vibrancy. 

Vinification: 

Riesling from Block 4 of The Elms vineyard was carefully hand-picked, whole bunch pressed, settled for 5-7 days before racking, then fermented with indigenous yeasts. The 2 week fermentation was stopped by chilling when the optimal balance was achieved between the acidity, alcohol and residual sugar (56g/L). Careful winemaking with minimal processing highlights the crisp natural acidity and the Riesling characters are delicately poised in the low alcohol of 9.5%.

Dr. L embodies the elegant and racy style of classic Mosel Riesling. It is refreshing and fruity, with a fine mineral edge that is typical of the region as the fruit comes vineyards nestled amongst the slate slopes of the Mosel. It is a true ambassador for the Mosel Region that delivers excellent quality and consistency in every vintage.

Delicious Riesling with gorgeously well balanced flavours of freshly picked crunchy green apples, lime zest and a ripe peachy note, all adding complexity to an incredibly beautiful expression of Riesling from this country's biggest wine region - Marlborough. 

This wine is made from a combination of hand and machine harvested fruit which was fermented at cool temperatures to retain fruit freshness as well as 11.6 grams per litre of residual sugar, nicely balanced by bright tasty acidity. It's a succulent little number which rocks a lime zest flavour and drinks beautifully now but can age for at least a decade. 

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery. Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

Wehlener Sonnenuhr (pronounced vay-len-er zon-en-ooer - The Sundial of Wehlen) is one of the greatest vineyards in the Middle Mosel. This precipitously steep, rocky vineyard consistently yields some of the most elegant and sophisticated white wines in the world. Citrus and white peach flavors predominate when the wines are young, turning to a pure expression of the mineral soil as they age.

Spatlese -  The Spatlese (late picked) designation means that the grapes get an extra week or two of hang time, which helps them develop higher ripeness and deeper flavours than Kabinett. 

Technical Info

Grape Variety: 100% Riesling

Appellation: Mosel

Quality level: Prädikatswein Spätlese 

VDP Classification: VDP.Grosse Lage

Vineayard: Wehlener Sonnenuhr

Soil: Blue slate soil

Viticulture: Sustainable, according to strict German environmental regulations

Picking method: Selective hand-picking

Blue Slate Soil is the most typical type of slate in the Middle Mosel. Rich in potassium, it provides vital nutrients to the vines and gives the wines a pronounced mineral edge that enhances the naturally high acidity of Riesling. In addition to the heat retaining blue slate soil, the vineyards are characterized by incredibly steep slopes, a favourable position near the river and excellent drainage.

One of the great dry Rieslings of North Canterbury, a region with a long dry autumn that typically results in concentrated citrus flavours of ripe lemon zest and notes of green apple, which stretch out to a lingering vibrant finish in this memorably delicious wine. It typically contains 4 grams residual sugar per litre (firmly in the dry camp) each year, including in this new release from the 2019 vintage. The wine is made from grapes harvested at 20.5 brix from low cropping land (2.2 tonnes per hectare). This Riesling is made from a vineyard planted on the Glasnevin Gravels. All grapes are hand picked, whole bunch pressed to stainless steel and fermented with a neutral yeast strain then aged on lees until bottled in late summer following harvest. 

This wine drinks beautifully now as a youthful, refreshing dry white and also ages superbly for five to six years, potentially longer in good cellar conditions.