Vickery The Reserve Watervale Riesling 2019
- 94
- $32
- Drink by: 2022-2037
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For their 2019 ‘Reserve’ Watervale, the team has sourced two parcels of fruit from the Koerner vineyard, Blocks G1 and G4. They were kept separate as they were considered extra special and worthy of Reserve status. Who would know this better than Australia’s master Riesling craftsman, John Vickery? The Reserve wines get an extra two years ageing prior to release to assist in building complexity and to enable the early signs of development to form, but this wine certainly has many years to go and is delightfully fresh at the moment.
Pale straw/lemon in colour, with flecks of green, this is powerful and punchy. Notes of florals and even a touch of nettles, dry herbs, a hint of chalk and bright citrus. There is a minerally undertow and steely acidity here, serious paper cut acidity. Fine balance, this wine has a good 12 to 15 years ahead of it – wonderful Riesling. In a decade, the pittance you will have paid now will seem like the bargain of the century.
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.
