Current Issue #488

Wine Review: A 'pitch-perfect' Stargazer Tasmanian Riesling

Wine Review: A 'pitch-perfect' Stargazer Tasmanian Riesling

It seems the Clare and Eden Valley Rieslings aren’t the only ones to do well out of the 2017 vintage, as evidenced by Samantha Connew’s wonderful Stargazer Riesling from Tasmania’s Coal River Valley.

stargazer-2017-riesling-wine-adelaide-reviewThe fruit source is the Palisander Vineyard in the Tea Tree region of the Coal River Valley some 20 minutes north-east of Hobart. The fruit profile is interesting here. From the Clare Valley we expect fresh lime juice and Christmas lily high-tones; in the Eden Valley that intense Bickford’s lime character and jasmine and frangipani top-notes.

In Tasmania, the prominent fruit aromas sit more in the grapefruit and green apple spectrums; such are the wonders of site and regional specific character s.

There is a wee scale on the label, the International Riesling Scale, which gives you an idea of how sweet or dry a particular wine is. This particular baby walks the knife-edge of dry and off-dry with about 8 g/L residual sugar tempered beautifully by bright, fine acidity.

Pitch-perfect tension between fruit sweetness and line with stunning pure fruit and a lovely fresh, yet textural, mouthfeel.

A producer doing great things.

STARGAZER 2017 Tasmania Riesling

Header photo: James Broadway

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