Pikes The Merle Riesling 2023
- 97
- $60
- Drink by: 2024-2044
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This is always one of the very best Clare Valley Rieslings, year in and year out. It never fails. And while $60 may look a bit hefty for what we have come to expect to pay for good Clare Riesling, think of it as $60 for a brilliant world class wine. Then suddenly, you have one of the best bargains around. From the team’s Polish River Hill vineyard, this is a gleaming pale lemon hue. Free run juice, fermentation in stainless steel and then four months on lees. This is taut, pristine, intense and with great length. Such immaculate balance with florals and limes to the fore. Very much in its youthful stage at the moment, it will age and improve for the next fifteen to twenty years and if well cellared, during which time the score could rise further. A truly stunning Riesling. No one has ever regretted putting a case or two of Pike’s Merle in their cellar.
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.
