Vignerons Schmölzer & Brown Riesling 2024
- 94
- $44
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The fruit for this wine comes from a 0.7-hectare site in the Stanley township. Wild fermented to dryness in neutral oak, it then spent a couple of months on lees with stirring before bottling. There’s a tightness now, but a fun future ahead for this crystalline, focused little number. So bright. So pure. Lemon sherbet, lemon juice, mandarin peel and pickled herbs sit above dried thyme and talc, before air unlocks dehydrated lime, yuzu and potpourri, with a shot of stony minerality through the core. I can’t recall a VS&B Riesling that didn’t excite from the outset — and this is no exception. The palate is dry and rapier-like, with tangy notes of lemon juice, lime pith, green apple skin, citrus blossom and white grapefruit shooting linearly through the mouth. Laser-like acidity draws out waves of salivating length. The tension, the poise, the energy. Tessa and Jeremy’s deft hand with this grape is clear once again. At $44 retail, there’s a lot of wine here. Just 53 dozen made.
Tom Kline is a wine writer, reviewer, presenter, and educator based in Victoria, Australia. He is the Australian correspondent for the internationally respected publications Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy and Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux, where he highlights the top tier of Australian wine for a global audience. Tom also writes for leading outlets including Decanter (UK), Wine Spectator (US), and Halliday Magazine, among others. An experienced wine show judge and WSET educator, he has authored several consumer-focused wine courses aimed at making wine more accessible and engaging. In 2023, Tom was awarded Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column at the prestigious Wine Communicator Awards, presented by Wine Communicators of Australia.
