Grampians 11.5% Screwcap $22 Source: Sample
Well, the Best’s tweet up has been and gone (not without incident, controversy and divergence of opinion I might add). I consider it a huge success, both for the winery & the region – and I extend my congratulations to them.
This year’s Rizza marks a distinct move away from the 2009 which was in the classic dry style with almost aggressive acidity. It’s fragrant, happy to step outside the citrus spectrum and quite rounded in the mouth…for an Australian Riesling. I’ll include some descriptors but I was fascinated to see the divergence in what was tasted or smelled by people who took part in the social media event. Some evidence to support points made by a a prominent wine writer in a discussion I had earlier in the week. Let’s just say he was keen to emphasise the subjective element of wine. And I’m fine with that.
A pretty nose of white flowers, apricot kernels, lime and bathsalts. Excellent balance of sweetness (8g/l) and acidity. Any sweeter & broader fruit flavours have a wonderful counterpoint in a driving minerality which is one of the most impressive aspects of the wine.
It’s very approachable as a bub and will be enjoyable as an early drinking Riesling over the next two years. How will it age? I honestly have no idea, but that balance suggests to me that it would be nice to keep a little for down the track.
Winery Website- http://www.bestswines.com/
I couldn't wait for you to post your tasting note on this so that I might comment. Personally, I found this wine alternately problematic and a bit fabulous. It's the interplay of sugar and acidity that interests me here – the acid is so chalky and hard, in the Australian style, that the wine's level of RS has trouble integrating into the overall structure. At least, that was my impression on first tasting. I retasted this the next day and found it much more integrated – yet still the tiniest bit blunt in terms of the effect its sugar has on its fruit character.
Of the three Best's wines we tasted at the tweet up, this one was the most difficult for me to unpack, stylistically. I can't quite decide whether the style is a tad cynical, a brave experiment, or just plain wrong. And, in addition to all that, I quite enjoyed drinking it.
And I couldn't wait for you to comment so I could reply
I unpacked this wine pretty easily and it was my favourite of the new Best's releases. It was simply less problematic than either of the others, in my opinion. But I don't mind "a little sugar in my bowl" 
People don't really make cynical wines do they?…
'I can't quite decide whether the style is a tad cynical, a brave experiment, or just plain wrong. And, in addition to all that, I quite enjoyed drinking it.'
I don't know either, but I'm in the brave experiment camp, almost like Adam's attempting to stamp his own style on the Riesling (what do you think JP?). The balance isn't quite there yet, but all the elements are there – sugar, acid, fruit. It's just that those elements are smashing into each other right now.
I didnt actually get to drink much of this wine, but I too can imagine quite enjoying a glass of it.
With Adam joining Best's in 2005/6 I'd probably think it was more an attempt to stamp his style on the wine AG. He was Len Evans dux in 2009 (from memory) – that and the way I personally perceive Best's leads me away from the idea that the wine has been made solely to cash in.
Having said that, everyone tells me people talk dry and buy sweet, and that is amplified at a cellar door. So the possiblity remains that AW has made a wine he is comfortable with & that he thinks will sell well rather than a wine that is, specifically, his vision…
There is a new, single vineyard Bests Great Western Riesling coming out soon that is sweeter again and very much Adam's pet project, suggesting that the move to sweeter styles might well be Adam's intention.
The new Rizza is quite smart.
Thanks for the info AG. I guess that makes a pretty conclusive case for the wine reviewed above being a stylistic direction taken by a winemaker. An interpretation of the best expression of a grape from a place…
Personally I am beginning to enjoy Riesling that messes around with sweetness rather than the classical Australian dry style (although I still enjoy them too). Can we do it as well as NZ and Mosel et al? I guess time will tell, but I appluad the exploration and conviction involved in attempting it.