Australian Riesling

by Dan Berger
When groundwork was being laid for establishing the International Riesling Foundation,
seeking members who would support the organization’s goals, one of the first and most
enthusiastic supporters of the idea was famed Riesling producer Jeffrey Grossett of Australia.

I met with Grossett in the grand entranceway at the 13th Australian Wine Industry
Technical Conference in Adelaide in mid-2006, and the fervor Grossett showed for the
organization (of which he had previously heard not a word, since it had not then been formed!)
was a bit surprising since I long ago knew that Australia has a long and glorious history with
Riesling that dates back to the earliest days of Barossa Valley’s German settlers in the early
1800s.

So strong is the Riesling culture in Australia that the subject has been well covered by the
country’s plethora of wine writers, many of whom treat the grape and the wine the way American
wine writers treat Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. Aussie wine columnists do annual
columns on the state of Riesling of the latest harvest; they track the quality level of Rieslings
from various regions and houses, and above all they wax poetic about the glories of aged
Riesling, a topic only one U.S. wine columnist has ever addressed more than once. Few ever
have.

Aussie Riesling has its own vibrant subculture in Australia, a fact little known outside the
country. Yet when first-time Australian Riesling consumers try the wines, whether the wines are
from the most recent vintage or long-cellared treasures, most newcomers are shocked by the style

of wine.

Because not only are these wines dry, they are also remarkably crisp, lean, minerally and
lemon-sour tart. Not even German wines designated Trocken (dry) are this austere. The only
parallel that fits here is Muscadet-lean, and I mean that in the most ascetic way.

Not that the wines are hard to drink by themselves, but with wines this crisp, the best
things to do with them are (a) serve them with food, or (b) age them.

Now, on the face of it, aged Riesling sounds like a distinct contradiction to the common
wisdom — that all white wines should be consumed as fast as possible. Some 30 years ago, I
believed that.

My reeducation began in the mid-1970s when I was first exposed to some German,
Alsacienne and Australian Rieslings that had been properly stored. Some of these wines had a bit
of residual sugar, and were structured properly to make it past one year.

It started for me with German Rieslings when an importer friend served me a 1967 Spätlese
that was utterly sublime. When well-made wines are aged a decade or two, any sugar in such
wines tends to become subsumed into its complexity. And the sugar isn’t as sweet.

At 20 years, the character is an astounding combination of things like petroleum (the
Germans call it “toast”), lichee nuts, toasted pine nuts, cynar, and a range of other elements too
numerous to detail.

Most American Rieslings were never made to be aged properly past a year or two because
acid and pH levels were not in the proper range, and thus most American Riesling buyers drew
the conclusion that they are made to be consumed young only.

Since that was the prevailing opinion, wineries made the wines softer and sweeter, and
the result was wines that were essentially soft, innocuous, and simple. Sure, they can be
charming. Served with a sweet Asian chicken salad with a sesame-ginger-honey dressing, they
delight on a warm spring afternoon, or a hot summer evening.

The real problem with sweeter Rieslings is that they too often lack acidity, which some
buyers equated with their drink-now mode.

Australians, on the other hand, have developed a palate for the bone-dry style of wine that
seems to dominate Aussie Rieslings. When the grapes are harvested as early as they are for that
style of wine, the natural aromas lean more toward the lime, pine, mint, juniper, stone fruit,
minerals, or even underbrush in a rain forest, which replaces guava/pineapple tropical fruit of
young Rieslings from warmer climes.

Such wines then evolve into magnificent and complex elixirs over years. Sure, it does
take getting used to. Learning to like older Riesling is a taste one acquires the way we gain a love
for mature oloroso sherry, old Rioja or Chianti, or even White Burgundy.

One reason Grossett was so keen on becoming part of the fledgling organization had little
to do with selling the wines to a broader audience. Grossett and many top Australian producers
already make and sell a lot of Australian Riesling at home and in Asia, where it is prized.

No, what captivated Grossett was that an organization seemed ripe for furthering
Riesling’s cause, broadening the awareness of Australian styles of the grape and its wines. Which
is what this article, four years after our meeting, is all about.

Today we have access to a great number of superb and reasonably priced Australian
Rieslings, offering us a chance to get wines with the structure to go the long haul. Almost all are
dry and made with bracing acidity.

Most of the best Rieslings from Australia have come into the United States over the last
decade made to sell for about $15 to $20 a bottle. A tiny handful (such as Grossett’s Polish Hill
wine from Clare Valley) sell for $20 to $30.

The culture of Riesling in Australia is so strong that it has reached into a vital second
stage of development, quality assessments based on vintage, and now a third stage, regional
distinctiveness.

Clare Valley, well north of Adelaide (about a two-hour drive), is a cooler region with
days warm enough to ripen red wine grapes, but with late afternoon breezes and evening cold to
make it a perfect climate for Riesling. It appears to be the most important Riesling area in
Australia.

A close second is the smaller and actually colder Eden Valley, which is actually a high
plain above the Barossa. About a quarter of a mile high in altitude, Eden Valley makes slightly
different but still classic Australian Rieslings with a personality all their own.

Many other regions now grow Riesling with Western Australia and Coonawarra
contributing some phenomenal efforts.

Though it has grown Riesling for a long time, Australia began to display Riesling
greatness in the 1950s, but it wasn’t until the late 1960s that John Vickery’s Leo Buring Rieslings
began to establish the regional characteristic of Clare Valley that soon become the iconic style for
which we recognize Australian Riesling. His nearly 1970s Rieslings are still being displayed to
this day to oohs and ahhs by Aussie collectors. He remains one of the top Australian wine makers
to this day.

Recent steps toward Riesling greatness in other districts, such as the Yarra Valley, Great
Southern, Gippsland, the Grampians, Adelaide Hills, Tasmania, and Orange were recognized in
the new 2010 book “Riesling in Australia” by wine maker Ken Helms and Trish Burgess. This is
a superb book that is at present available only in Australia. (Log onto http://
www.helmwines.com.au for details.)

Because it is such an acquired taste, Australia’s top Rieslings are still a relatively slow

sell on the U.S. market, but those who understand the wine’s remarkable aging potential are
benefitting from close-outs and deep discounts for what some retailers see as “old” Riesling.

It may well be time for more U.S. wine collectors to educate themselves to such glories
before prices for mature Rieslings, instead of falling, rise to their appropriate levels.