October 23, 2012

Daniel Lenko 2006 Reserve Riesling



(Re-Tasted October 2012) ... My wife is the Riesling lover in the family, so when we open a bottle it's usually for her and I just tag along for the tasting ... don't get me wrong, I love Riesling as well, but I'm good for any and all wines, it's just when a Riesling gets opened she's having some too.  Tonight we opened a bottle of Danny Lenko Riesling from 2006.  Now I remember talking with Dan years ago about why he has only a "reserve" Riesling and no "base model", he was pretty blunt when he told me that he learned years ago that people will pay more if the word "Reserve" is written on the bottle, even if it's the same wine in the bottle ... you gotta love that kind of honesty.  That all said I have to say I was excited to try this Riesling to see if it had stood the test of time - or at least the test of the past 6 years.  Ha-za it did.  The nose is full of wild flower honey and honeycomb notes along with candied lemon peel, mac apple and just a hint of petrol on alternate sniffs.  The palate was a little more complicated, not complex, complicated as it showed little in the way of fully recognizable flavours, just a mash up of a bunch of things:  lemon-petrol-mac apple-poached pear-lime cordial and waxy honeycomb.  All said and done it was a pleasant easy drinking Riesling that was tame in the acidity department and decent on flavour.  If you're sitting on some of this I would say it's time to drink.


October 1, 2012

Featherstone 2006 Old Vines Riesling


Click here to read the original review from October 2007 - while there also see the re-taste note

(Re-Tasted September 2012) ... This was not the first Riesling we opened on this Saturday afternoon - the first was a Dolomite 2006 (same year) from Cave Spring Cellars, it unfortunately was oxidized ... considering we did not have another bottle cold I decided to open up another Riesling from the same year, though different producer.  This old vines Riesling is still holding onto its mineral component but is losing the battle with petrol, which seems to overwhelm most of the smells and flavours.  Everything I can mention as a flavour or aroma has a petrol note attached: there's apricot and petrol, poached pear and petrol and a little lime pith and petrol ... though I have to hand it to this wine, it shucks the petrol on the the lingering finish so that it does not taste like you've sucked back a whole jerry-can of gasoline.