Double Oaks Macedon Ranges Riesling 2020

Barrel fermented Rieslings are becoming mainstream. It’s as if the joy to be had in enjoying a Riesling naked to the world, and made with the simplest of winemaking techniques, is not enough. For one thing, there’s all that acidity to deal with. Some want more. At Double Oaks Estate they have opted to give the grapes a wild fermentation in French oak and then age the wine on its leftover yeast lees for four months. The result is quite an intense, concentrated wine. There are aromatics aplenty; honeysuckle, jasmine, citrus blossom with exotic spice and apple. It then remains fresh and vital but fills the mouth with a range of Riesling flavours not often seen from custard and lemon butter and spice to a cleansing saline, minerality. And that often worrisome Riesling acidity? It holds firm and does the job beautifully.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic