2022 The Story Whitlands Riesling
2022 The Story Whitlands Riesling

2022 The Story Whitlands Riesling

94 pts
The Story |Grampians |Riesling
Cool climate Riesling with a kiss of sweetness.
Price:
$32.00
Stock:
Sold out
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Description

This is a lovely cool-climate Riesling from Rory Lane. He's been making it now for a number of years and has his approach to this fruit pretty well dialed in.

It's barrel fermented in a large foudre than finished with a smidgen of residual sugar, both the hint of sugar and the oak lending a little more texture and weight to the fragile, high-tensile fruit that this Whitlands vineyard produces.

A delightful wine kept perfectly in balance and a great place to start if looking to slightly sweeter/more textural styles of Australian Riesling.

94 points
"This is a gorgeous style of wine. It offers lemon, kaffir lime and chalk notes with the most delicious burst of flavour-carrying acidity through the finish."
- Campbell Mattinson (Halliday Wine Companion)

94 points - "Fermented wild in foudre and stopped at 7 g/L RS. It sits pale in the glass, smells delicate on the nose, and is then intense on the palate, but soft. This is a gorgeous style of wine. It offers lemon, kaffir lime and chalk notes with the most delicious burst of flavour-carrying acidity through the finish." - Campbell Mattinson (Halliday Wine Companion)

Our seventh release from Whitlands, and the third cool vintage in a row. The Croucher Vineyard is set at close spacing on red volcanic soils, up at around 800m above sea level, and was planted in the mid-1980s. It is proper cool-climate viticulture - something I think Riesling really needs to give full expression. 2022 was a cool, wet and long vintage, very similar in that respect to 2021, but timing the pick around the rain events and the reliable spectre of botrytis was more challenging this year. Harvest was 8th April, which was not that late in retrospect, but another significant rain event forced our hand and we went a little earlier than we would have liked to avoid rot. High acidities and delicate flavours made 100% foudre fermentation the most sensible choice, to add softness and give to a wine that would otherwise be a little ‘strict’. 8g/lt residual sugar was also left to further counterweight the acidity. The resultant wine is very pale, with delicate lemon and Granny Smith apple flavours, characteristic persistent phenolics but s nicely soft and gentle palate. I think it will take a little longer to blossom than some vintages, but time should be kind.

Price Bracket $31 to $40
Type White
Body Light Bodied
Variety Riesling
Variety Style ["Off-Dry Riesling"]
Country Australia
Region Grampians
Australian State VIC
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
Critic Score 94
Size 750ml
Vintage 2022
Closure Screw Cap

The Story

Rory Lane, the main man at The Story, didn't have an entirely conventional path to the wine world. With a degree in ancient Greek tragedy, comparative literature, and politics, he stumbled into winemaking and found he had more than a knack for it.

Since 2004, he's been tinkering with predominantly Rhône varieties in the Grampians, turning out some unique expressions from this Shiraz-heavy region. His winery is located in the city suburbs of Melbourne, not your typical winery setting, but it suits him down to a tee.

Rory's winemaking philosophy is to keep it relatively simple and hands-off. Grapes arrive, get gently processed, and then are left to their own devices with minimal interference. No additives, no excessive tinkering. Just good, solid, classic winemaking producing some exceptional value wines.

Winemaker Rory Lane The Story

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