Mt Difficulty Bannockburn Target Riesling Medium 2021
Tasting Notes
Mt Difficulty Bannockburn Target Riesling Medium 2021 has a powerful nose of exotic mango and pineapple with orange blossom and mandarin citrus. This riesling is all about balance. Intense citrus fruit initially flow into a juicy, succulent mid palate. A balanced amount of residual sugar and acidity leads to a very long finish with salivating mineral accent, begging you for another glass!
CELLARING POTENTIAL
Mt Difficulty Target Riesling will improve for 1-10 years given optimal cellaring conditions.
Vintage Notes
VINTAGE 2021
The 2021 growing season was a return to the enviable, lower stress conditions that Central Otago is famous for. We started with a warm spring, which gave the vines a good start. January was cooler and wetter, which replenished the soils and slowed growth, giving small intensely flavoured grapes. By the time the beginning of harvest rolled around, we were just ahead of our long term average in terms of rate of ripening, and with fruit in fantastic condition. Yields were thankfully back to average in most areas, with only Bannockburn cropping slightly lower. This has given wines with excellent flavour and structure.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS
Target Riesling is a style crafted to balance residual sugar in perfect harmony with the wine’s natural acidity. With the warm 2018 growing season our harvest dates were early and compact. The fruit was hand harvested on the 11th April and 24th April. The fruit was processed in a reductive manner, with the juice settled for a week prior to being racked clean. This gave us time to brew an indigenous starter culture. The wine was fermented cool with indigenous yeast to help maximise varietal character. The ferment was monitored closely until the perfect balance between acidity and residual sugar was reached. The wine was then sulphured, chilled and left on lees for 4 months.
Alc 15% T/A 6.6gL-1 pH 3.03 Residual Sugar 30 g/L
Accolades & Awards
Gold at the New Zealand International Wine Show 2022
92 Points, James Suckling Tasting Report 2022
- 1 Merit, The Real Review Wine Classification 2022