What The Barkeep Loves...

I love wine, I love beer. I love whisky, whiskey and other weird and wonderful concoctions that are usually fermented, distilled, or fortified. I am honoured to be your Barkeep at the Scullery Bar, an extension of the fabulous and fearless Scullery.

I love Riesling. Of all the wondrous grape varieties and their blends/co-ferments, I think Riesling delivers flavour and versatility to the glass more often than not. For so many years it was merely the juice of a cask, condemned to the barbeque table with plastic cups. On the comeback and very good value in most bottle shop fridges, it can be dry or off dry or sweet, lean or full, perfumed or herbal, with varying degrees of minerality. Riesling is best consumed fresh from the current vintage, but with the advent of the Stelvin closure can be cellared confidently. Aged Riesling hits a muted "lull" after about 3 – 4 years, developing then into sometimes amazing wines; deep, rich and delicious things of patience. I eat a lot of aromatic Thai & Vietnamese dishes and Riesling is the perfect accompaniment. My rule of thumb is the more chilli heat, the sweeter the wine should be. Dry Riesling hovers around 1 – 8 grams(of residual sugar per litre of wine), whilst the 20 – 40 gram mark will be the at the sweeter end of the spectrum. Don't be scared of these wines though, the German's pioneered the sweeter stuff…when they have enough balancing natural acid, they can be remarkable and tend to be lower in alcohol(around 11°). There are quite a lot of modern Australian examples of this style and the smarter producers are labelling their Riesling's with residual sugar levels clearly. When confronted with a wall of white wine that looks lifeless and boring, buy Riesling.

Two For Review:

The first wine to render me speechless this year was a mouthful of Frogmore Creek 2007 Riesling(Coal River Valley, Tas, $24). Kindly poured to me by a publican who trusted James Haliday's rave reviews of this wine so much as to order a couple of dozen direct from the winery, it was, quite simply, profound. Surely sold out by now, it had a flavour profile that went from green apple to mandarin to lime juice and back again(9gRS/L). Lovely acid. Great Length. Stunning.

Mesh 2008 Riesling(Eden Valley, SA, $28) is an example of a wine that nearly sells itself, given the profile of it's makers. Ultra dry(1gRS/L), I just don't love this vintage like I have some others. Lovely and fresh, very structured and quite complex, it just seems to be all lemon & lime with not much aromatic appeal. And a faint bitter note to finish. Annoying.

Thanks for dropping by the Scullery Bar. See you soon.

Barkeep.