Kilikanoon Mort’s Reserve Riesling 2017
- 95
- $50
- Drink by: 2021-2028
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A great reserve Riesling is a joy to taste, elevating what is already a good wine to another level of complexity and sheer enjoyment. In the Clare Valley, the term usually comes with some extended bottle age to save the drinker time and cellar space (which is generally at a premium in this house). It’s ready to go when released. The winemaker needs to make a call on what comes under the reserve label pretty early in its life. He or she has to be able to see into the future.
In the 2017 vintage, the basis of Mort’s Reserve has to have been the pure line of intense lime and citrus that pervades every square inch (centimetre?) of flavour. It’s tingly, zesty with a real kick. Fruit concentration is the key here. Fragrant and subtle on the bouquet it builds and builds drawing intensity from the long, pure acid drive that propels this wine. Pithy in texture with a touch of spice, it fulfils its reserve name and then some.
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.
