Riesling counts many wine enthusiasts as fans, but has often failed to entice the ''average drinker''.
Its diversity may be part of the problem, as it can be everything from bone dry, off-dry, richly sweet through to luscious dessert wine, leaving some consumers unsure of what they are getting.
At all sweetness levels the key word is balance, with freshness and acidity an integral factor.
This tasting focused on sweeter styles (sometimes dubbed ''medium'') in which the wines have lower alcohol and higher levels of natural grape sugars.
The wines were served blind, in randomised order with regular panellists Alastair McLaren and Ricky Collins joining me.
Price: $27-$30
Rating: Very good
Sweetly fruited nose with lemon, lemon pith and marmalade. Musk and blood orange comes up with aeration. Sweet on the palate with a hint of candyfloss. Initially soft in the mouth with a chalky hint on the finish, but this opened up and showed a lovely freshness. Very appealing wine.
Price: Around $35-$37
Rating: Outstanding
Gorgeous florals with honeysuckle nuances and a grapefruity tang. Stewed apples with baking spices and bush honey. Perfectly balanced wine whose acidity provides a neat counterpoint to the honeyed sweetness. Sumptuous. The finish goes on and on. A classy wine.
Price: $20-$22
Rating: Good
A subtle nose with a musky perfume leading into apple notes. The palate is like biting into a Granny Smith apple with that sweet and sour tang. Moderately intense on the palate with bracing, quite firm acidity. A little clipped on the finish.
Price: $39.99
Rating: Outstanding
Classic Riesling nose; honey, citrus fruits and riper fruits hinting at pineapple. A hint of wild yeast with aeration. Ripe honeyed fruit on the palate with a whisper of kero. Superbly balanced with a long, intense finish: remaining fresh and poised. This would give fish and chips a run for its money.
Price: $28-$30
Rating: Excellent
Citrus peel, citrus blossom and orange. Quite fine nose with lime notes upon aeration. Crunchy, lemony acidity on entry with orange and mandarin flavours on the palate. Nice breadth here with excellent length. This improved a great deal with aeration, the honeyed palate developing lime nuances.
Price: $27-$30
Rating: Very good
Rose petal, white flowers, geranium. Honeyed fruit entry with grapefruit and spices. Creamy mouth feel with nice acidity. Aeration sees notes of tangelo and marmalade develop. Complexity here. Quite firm and grippy on the finish but this softens with time.
Price: Around $30
Rating: Very good
Complex nose. Funky, wild yeast nose with orange, mandarin and spices. Baked fruit pie with baking spices and hints of juniper berries. A firm palate with a citrus peel tang on the finish creating a sour contrast to the sweet palate.
Price: Around $25
Rating: Excellent
Honey, apricot and stonefruit with wild yeast notes. Baked apples/fruits with crunchy acidity: spices appearing with aeration. A tinge of grapefruit keeping it fresh. This really opens up and blossoms on the nose; lots going on here. Delicious wine.
