Good grief this is dry.

Gold medal winning wine. Typical Clare Valley, lime juice with a splash of petrol.

Very, very good but no better than say Tim Adams.

Lower acidity than is usual for the CV. Flavours are correct but quite subtle.

Is very nice but too expensive for a star.

Dunc...why does unoaked riesling age well and sb so badly. They are both pungent grapes with high acidity yet riesling ages so well and sb turns vegetal after about three years ( if that )

Since you ask G, I only know these details by default - I don't know the chemistry, and Mel is the one to give a Master's answer.

By default:

It would appear from drinking experience by those who have cellared or have bought the finest wines, that the Rieslings that live the longest are those wines made from very old vines grown on unirrigated steep vineyards on certain German and Alsace shale slopes. The vines will have been picked late and would have struggled at the end of the season, so that the fruit is very high in sucrose, dehydrated and the skins are worn and weather beaten. Noble rot and the associated fungi aid the longevity anti-aging process (Sauternes & Niagra falls ice wines), and there is another compound that produces the petroly aroma, a carotenoid, a catalist ? that comes from the acid and other elements and compounds naturally occuring in the resultant wine, that would also appear to aid bottle age. Does the carotenoid work like an antioxidant ? Dunno

Mel will know the chemistry. I looked up the petrolly / carot...... business, to see if it would reveal another reason for aging potential in the dry /semi dry styles.

Enjoy, I'm just finishing a '05 St Emilion Yum

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Duncan

Residual sugar?

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Yep, Im still here.

RS would explain the sweeter rieslings longevity but the Aussie rieslings can improve for 10 years or more and are drier than most of the dross that passes for MSB these days.

Clare Valley riesling turns golden, loses some of it's acidity which can be off putting in it's youth but retains it's flavour well. With sb you get the gold and the lower acidity but the flavour falls apart. The very best unoaked Loire sb's will be an exception. The De Ladoucette wines being stunning after a few years bottle age.

Riesling must have something that sb doesn't for it's flavour to hold.

Yeah - I wos on that last night....#'$?%#*< ! G. no answer to your Ozzy Q. here. Their's are realtively new vineyards - or are they 1842 onwards ?

Old vine, unirrigated SB, made in the ole way, on certain very free draining soils last a lot longer ! Lets look at the ole time Loire yeasts ? What is in the skin of the fruit which came off the uncloned and ancient knarled vines ?.Well.......tannin on the stalks of the smaller rounder fruit.

The rest is a freak of natural chemistry.

Ladoucette have their own yeast culture from decades of saving and nurturing, locked in a vault under the chateau foundations No kidding

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Duncan

Their's are realtively new vineyards - or are they 1842 onwards ?

Err....1842.

Off to see if I can Google the age of Tim Adams/Grosset etc riesling vines against the vines of Saint Clair and Jackson Estate sb vines.

If sugar is a key to aging then my elderflower Champers should last until about 3050

Thanks, Dunc

Next millenium - Huh ! By which time a small meteorite will drop out of the sky on petite chateau Goose

just a passing tit bit reference......1842 is the approx year that 1st Settlers planted cab & syrah in the Barossa valley.

But you're in Clare just now. So, ho hum.

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Duncan

You see...I stray, briefly, from sauvignon blanc and I just get confused.

Off for beer and Sherlock

Dunc, why do I like Stella and not Carling.

Dunc, don't answer