Mt Difficulty Bannockburn Dry Riesling 2023
Tasting Notes
Intense and aromatic lemon, lime and mandarin dominate on the nose of Mt Difficulty Bannockburn Dry Riesling 2023, hinting at the warmer season. Bright citrus opens the palate with a definite minerality, redolent of the schist-based soils on which it was grown. The palate is built around the taught acid line which travels from the front through to the finish. This sets the wine up for aging well into the future.
CELLARING POTENTIAL
Mt Difficulty Dry Riesling will improve for 15 years given optimal cellaring conditions.
Vintage Notes
VINTAGE 2023
The 2023 growing season in Central Otago was vastly different to the rest of the country. We came out of a mild, wet winter to a warm and unusually still spring which meant strong shoot growth and fruit set. Post flowering, the summer heat increased, and Cromwell experienced it’s hottest January on record. We started picking in the middle of March however, a blast of cold weather from the south during the first week of April put a welcome handbrake on ripening which meant the majority of our grapes developed more flavour and tannin ripeness. We finished harvesting in mid-May, making it a longer vintage with excellent quality.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS:
Our Dry Riesling attempts to balance flavour and palate weight with the wine’s natural acidity. A warmer Summer meant careful control of sun exposure during the growing season and harvesting earlier in the season. It was carefully hand-harvested and processed through the winery – the wine was whole bunch pressed and fermented on full solids to help enhance palate weight. The wine was fermented relatively warm in stainless steel, using indigenous yeast to retain maximum varietal expression. The wine was fermented slowly to dryness, and then rested unstirred on its gross yeast lees; building texture for 6 months.
Alc. 12.5% TA 9.1 g/L pH 2.95 Residual Sugar 8.00gL
Accolades & Awards
Information to come