It’s a simple little show, so what went wrong?
It’s become a popular event in the show calendar, attracting over 500 entries. Ferngrove Wines from Frankland River in W.A. took home the top trophy at this year’s CIRC for a 2016 Off Dry Limited Release.
Photo Credit: Graham Tidy
Wines are judged by region, style and vintage. The entries are divided into dry, off dry and sweet, as well as current vintage, open vintage and museum classes.
Bird in Hand from Adelaide Hills won the Best Dry Riesling trophy with a Clare Riesling, the Robert Stein Vineyard picked up Best Museum Class Riesling, Mount Majura won the trophy for Best in the Canberra District and Chartley Estate the award for best Tassie Riesling. The winning sticky was the Heggies Vineyard Botrytis Riesling 2015 with a score of 96, a wine we’ve recommended more than once.
The Good News
The good news is that the Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2016 scored 96 – a couple more points than it deserves – and so did St John’s Road Peace of Eden 2016, which I scored at 97. The Robert Oatley Signature Series Riesling 2015 scored 95, a few points more than I had on my score card.
Devil’s Corner Riesling 2015 is another affordable Riesling (from Tassie) that scored 95. The outstanding bargain among these is the Jim Barry, which you can pick up for as little as $13 or $14 when the chains put it on special.
The Usual Issues
You know that I have reservations about wine shows, and the way they judge wines. The wines below all scored 93 to 96 points in my book; in other words they’re of the same quality as the wines we listed above. In Canberra, only the Vickery Eden Valley Riesling got a medal, a measly bronze. John is Australia’s greatest Riesling maker, and 87 points for a great wine like that is hard to fathom, but it gets worse:
- Vickery Watervale Riesling 2016 – 82
- O’Leary Walker Polish Hill 2016 – 83
- Pikes Traditionale Riesling 2016 – 83
- Leo Buring Clare Valley Dry Riesling 2016 – 85
- Mountadam Vineyards Riesling 2016 – 88
What were the judges smoking?
More Surprises
We haven’t tried these wines yet but their past form has marked them as some of the best Rieslings you can buy:
- Clos Clare Riesling 2016 – 85 (made by Tom Barry)
- Crabtree Watervale Riesling 2016 – 83
- Wilson Polish Hill River Riesling 2016 – 84
- Eden Hall Reserve Riesling 2016 – 85
- Penfolds Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling 2016 – 85
- Seppelt Drumborg Riesling 2016 – 84
- Jacob’s Creek Steingarten Riesling 2014 – 84
- Leo Buring Leopold Riesling 2015 – 85
- Tertini Semi-Dry Riesling 2015 – 84
- Dopff-au-Moulin Riesling Grand Cru Schoenenbourg de Riquewihr 2011
I think that’s enough to make the point. From a judging point of view, this is an easy show because there are just 512 wines, and they’re all Rieslings. So what went wrong?
Here’s my take on the 2016 vintage so far: It’s official: 2016 is a Great Riesling Vintage.
Kim