It was recently brought to my attention that Riesling celebrated a Birthday on Friday. March 13th, 1435 is designated as Riesling’s Birthday. This is the earliest recording of Riesling vines and the documentation took place in Germany.
One of my favourite Rieslings is the Old Vines Riesling from Tantalus, which is produced from vines that date back to 1978. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a ten year vertical tasting of this wine and it was an incredible experience.
I recently tasted the 2016 vintage and it might be one of my favourite vintages yet. My tasting notes were written four days after the bottle was opened.
The nose offers aromas of petroleum, lemon rind, lemon juice, crushed gravel and hints of mandarin peel.
This wine is medium bodied, slightly off-dry and has high acidity.
The palate offers good intensity and is bursting with bruised apples, red candied apples, tangerine, fresh lemon, hard lemon candies and even a hint of coconut oil on the long finish.
This Spring I am looking forward to the release of the next vintage, the 2017 Tantalus Old Vines Riesling. Despite the fact that we are navigating strange times, Tantalus recently reported that they are still on track for their online Spring releases on April 1st. #supportlocal
For more on Tantalus check out an earlier article from Year In Wine, entitled Tantalus Vineyards, or visit their website www.tantalus.ca.