Greenhough Apple Valley Riesling 2023

Greenhough Apple Valley Riesling, Nelson, South Island, New Zealand, 2023   

Grape: 100% Organic Riesling, hand harvested and whole bunch pressed, unoaked, vine age 23-43 years, 25g/L residual sugar

Producer Tasting Note:

Delicate citrus florals combine with fresh, red apples, nectarines and flinty notes. The palate is light yet deliciously juicy and sweetly fruited. This sweetness is underpinned by a lively, intensifying  acidity which  emerges seamlessly and extends to a long and elegantly refreshing finish.

This Riesling is grown on the home vineyard from vines planted in 1996. Fruit is harvested while sugar levels are low, taking only the cleanest of fruit to promote the purest flavours. Grapes are hand picked, gently whole bunch pressed and settled before being inoculated with a low vigour, aromatic yeast and cool tank-fermented. As sugar and acidity come into balance the wine is rapidly chilled to stop the fermentation. The Apple Valley style typically sits somewhere between 25 and 35 grams of residual sugar with alcohol in the lower range of 9-10.5 percent.  Key to the style is a precise balance between retained sweetness and mouth-watering acidity.

Critics' Tasting Notes:

“Pure, ripe, fresh and lifted bouquet with scents of lime and apple, plenty of white flowers and steely mineral core. An off-dry expression with a fresh lick of sweetness as the wine touches the palate. Flavours of apples and limes, flinty mineral core with a gentle spritz-like quality that dances across the palate. Perfectly balanced and well made with a lengthy finish. A lovely aperitif style with perfect drinking from day of purchase through 2035”.  

94/100 points, Cameron Douglas MS, 24 April 2024

“It’s alluring and enticing on the nose with mandarin, lemon sorbet, crunchy apple and white floral aromas, followed by a finely focused palate that’s concentrated and linear. Wonderfully enhanced by elegant sweetness and beautifully infused acidity, finishing persistent and delectable. Style : Medium-dry. At its best: Now – 2035”   

96/100 points, WINE ORBIT, July 2024

The Greenhough Property:

In late 1990, a young couple left Auckland to re-settle in a rural pocket of Nelson, encouragingly named ‘Hope’. Swapping city for country life, Andrew and Jenny took on a four- hectare property determined to create something of their own. The vineyard had been partially established in the mid-70s by a pioneer amateur winemaker. From a single hectare planted in the mid-1970s, their home vineyards have grown to almost nine. Prized parcels of original vines planted in 1976 remain as some of the oldest in the region. The nearby Morison Vineyard, established in 2000, adds a further four hectares. Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are the mainstays of the estate's plantings, with small blocks of additional Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Gewurztraminer providing 'colour' to the grape varieties grown here.

Food Match: Thai and Chinese food. Tex Mex with Cilantro, roasted pork and seafood