Green gold, mid depth. Nutty, mealy lees; ripe peaches. Ripe fruit style but with acid and mineral backbone. Clean with a good finish. A very good wine for the price. 13.5%
Marlborough, New Zealand
17/20 [tasted 24-11-2012]
Bought www.blackmarket.co.nz. Very good value at $10.99. Tasted a few weeks after delivery so storage is not relevant.
Mid-deep robe. Nose of dark cherry, good sweet oak and some nice tobacco notes. Good balance on the palate, sweet fruit – red berries, cherry – and a touch of smooth tannin. Medium-long finish with sweet fruit there and lovely ripe tannin. A lovely wine.
Gladstone, Wairarapa, New Zealand
18.5/20 [tasted 24-01-2012] www.fairmontestate.co.nz
Bought cellar door. Great value at RRP $25.00 and even better if winemaker John McNab offers you a case discount. Stored in a cool spare room.
Pale green/yellow. Lime and citrus, lovely ripe fruit and a light touch of kerosene there too. Lovely medium-sweet palate with delicate lime/citrus and white florals, acid in balance. Long finish and ripe fruits linger. Very good wine.
Waipara, New Zealand
18.5/20 [tasted 04-08-2012] www.rieslingchallenge.co.nz Simon Waghorn
Bought from www.blackmarket.co.nz. The case of 12 (one bottle from each of the Challenge winemakers) was great value for $120. Stored in a cool spare room.
Pale green-gold. Lime, citrus, some tropical fruits and a hint of kerosene. Quite ripe fruit on the palate, some citrus and background notes of kerosene. Good finish with cleansing acid and lime lasting. Good wine.
Waipara, New Zealand
17.5/20 [tasted 03-08-2012] www.rieslingchallenge.co.nz Duncan Forsyth
Bought from www.blackmarket.co.nz. The case of 12 (one bottle from each of the Challenge winemakers) was great value for $120. Stored in a cool spare room.
Touch of gold. White flowers, some petrol with lime and sweet citrus. Medium sweet, some citrus but lacking in the mid-palate; nose much better than the palate. Length is just OK.
Waipara, New Zealand
16/20 [tasted 24-06-2012] www.rieslingchallenge.co.nz Ant McKenzie
Bought from www.blackmarket.co.nz. The case of 12 (one bottle from each of the Challenge winemakers) was great value for $120. Stored in a cool spare room.
Light green-gold. Lime, lemon, some florals and a little kerosene. Just off-dry; good citrus fruit and some florals but a hint of vegetal stalkiness too, although this reduces with time in the glass. Finish is average but in balance. Nice wine but the vegetal notes are out of character.
Waipara, New Zealand
16/20 [tasted 25-05-2012] www.rieslingchallenge.co.nz Paul Bourgeois
Bought from www.blackmarket.co.nz. The case of 12 (one bottle from each of the Challenge winemakers) was great value for $120. Stored in a cool spare room.
Green-gold. Some petrol but nose otherwise a bit dull. Sweet style with petrol on the palate, some acid but a touch cloying; an off unclean character too – bit oxidised perhaps? Finish is caramel with only a hint of fruit.
Waipara, New Zealand
15/20 [tasted 05-05-2012] www.rieslingchallenge.co.nz Larry McKenna
Bought from www.blackmarket.co.nz. The case of 12 (one bottle from each of the Challenge winemakers) was great value for $120. Stored in a cool spare room.
Green-gold. Touch of petrol with lemon and lime notes. Lovely balance of clean acid, sweetness and fruit; touch of honey with limes and bright lemon. Finishes long, clean and moreish. Excellent wine and the top in the Challenge.
Waipara, New Zealand
19/20 [tasted 25-04-2012] www.rieslingchallenge.co.nz Matt Donaldson
Bought from www.blackmarket.co.nz. The case of 12 (one bottle from each of the Challenge winemakers) was great value for $120. Stored in a cool spare room.
Very light straw. Kerosene prominent; lemons and limes. Medium-dry, florals and a touch of kerosene; quite light on the palate, good acid and structure. Delicate finish of florals and citrus. A very nice wine.
Waipara, New Zealand
17.5/20 [tasted 06-04-2012] www.rieslingchallenge.co.nz John Forrest
Bought from www.blackmarket.co.nz. The case of 12 (one bottle from each of the Challenge winemakers) was great value for $120. Stored in a cool spare room.
Waipara Riesling Challenge 2010 overview
Early this year I bought two cases of the 2010 Waipara Riesling Challenge wines at the bargain-basement price of $9.99 a bottle (from www.blackmarket.co.nz). The challenge was an interesting idea: does the grape or the making make most difference? Or, to quote from the Challenge website: “This competition is a world-first in terms of providing a means of establishing the extent to which the winemaker’s individual skills and style can sculpt a given – and matching – batch of grapes into a world-class wine.”
Hand-picked bunches picked from the Mud House ‘The Mound’ vineyard were shipped to 12 top New Zealand winemakers. Each was given free rein to make at least 250 cases of the best wine they could from the four tonnes they received.
Between February and August I tasted each of the wines. It’s certainly not as ideal as tasting each wine blind in a single sitting, but I wanted to be able to enjoy the rest of the bottle after tasting the wine and, while a bottle with a meal is manageable, a dozen certainly isn’t!
Did the Challenge answer the question? Perhaps. All winemakers have options, but Riesling presents so many that winemaking input will clearly outweigh any terroir or site specificity, and the many outcome possibilities may introduce confounding factors for judges, including personal preference (eg, dry v sweet) and internal comparison against internationally-accepted accepted styles (‘It’s not Alsace). Perhaps a Sauvignon Blanc would be a better New Zealand white to try this experiment with? Maybe one day…
Links to the notes follow, as well as links to notes from Raymond Chan and Tom Cannavan who both tasted the wines in a line-up.
Waipara Riesling Challenge Jules Taylor 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Matt Dicey 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Patrick Materman 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Simon McGeorge 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Mike Brown 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge John Forrest 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Matt Donaldson 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Larry McKenna 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Paul Bourgeois 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Ant McKenzie 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Duncan Forsyth 2010
Waipara Riesling Challenge Simon Waghorn 2010
Raymond Chan’s notes
Tom Cannavan’s notes