Auld Family Wines Wilberforce Riesling 2024
- 93
- $35
- Drink by: 2025-2037
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Eden Valley Riesling from a great vintage – one of the great buys in the world of wine. The name Wilberforce brought back memories of long ago days at Law School, not all of them pleasant, and having to digest the endless judgments of Lord Wilberforce of the Privy Council (and much more). Or possibly the Bishop Wilberforce about whom T. H. Huxley said, after the poor Bishop was thrown from his horse and killed when his head hit a rock, “for once, reality and his brain came into contact, and the result was fatal.” Lord Wilberforce was actually the great-grandson of the unfortunate Bishop. But no, none of these. Rather, an ancestor of today’s Aulds, William Patrick Auld, had a horse which would only carry him (it was not the horse which threw our member of the cloth). That horse was called Wilberforce. No idea why. Anyway, it has now been celebrated with these wines. The wine – a very pale lemon hue. The nose has notes of spices, river stones, citrus, grapefruit and florals. A very aromatic style of Riesling, delightfully fragrant with notes of jasmine. The palate continues the lemony theme and provides a chalky support. There is very good length here, a linear style with fine acidity. It will drink beautifully for the next ten to twelve years.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
