2008 Ostler Blue House Riesling, Waitaki River, Otago (Stelvin)

The fledgling Waitaki River district looks set to be a prime location for aromatic white wines such as this beautifully precise, chiselled Riesling with its amazingly pure fresh lime blossom aromatics and beautifully delineated paalte. A great wine to drink on its own in summer or with a carpaccio of scallops.
(Jasper Morris MW, BBR Buyer)

The colour is a refreshingly brilliant straw green. The nose is very pure, showing scents of wild flowers, lime sherbert and a salty freshness, analagous with a sea-breeze. Nervosite is there, brimming with tension as the fruit and acid do their dance like two young lovers entwined in an embrace. The wine possesses great poise in the mouth with the characteristic citrus flavours filling the palate at the outset then giving way to a more elusive, and yet harder-cored, minerality that builds in power as the wine warms up. It is an unashamedly fresh wine that possesses length of flavour which belies the age of the vines. If this is what can be achieved from such young vines then this vineyard has a great future indeed.
(Jeff Sinnott, Winemaker, Ostler Vineyards)