Riesling Downunder has come and gone, and what an event it was. A three-day celebration of all things Riesling, with hundreds of members of the public, trade and media involved. It’s been a particular delight for CellarHand, as proud distribution partners of event founder Frankland Estate and co-sponsor clos Clare.
We were fortunate to play host to 12 producers from Austria, Germany and Alsace whose wines we import into Australia. It was important to justify this mammoth journey for them, so we crammed as much as possible into the week, giving them a chance to meet as many Riesling fans as possible and running them ragged in the process. In tribute to that effort, this is a little Instagram travelogue of their Aussie tour.
The first port of call, fresh off the plane, was Toorak Cellars, where an annual Summer of Riesling party had been organised on Saturday, 7th February. In addition to our European guests, Aussie stars John Hughes of Rieslingfreak and Mac Forbes were represented. The latter’s experimental batch whole-bunch Riesling is being tasted by Rheinhessen winemaker Philipp Wittmann in the picture above.
Also present was Hunter Smith of Frankland Estate, who made a lengthy journey from his Great Southern home to host Riesling Downunder. The bottles he’s holding are double magnums of his flagship single-vineyard Riesling, Isolation Ridge, from the 2005 vintage. What were they for? Why, another party, of course.
Those large-format Frankland Estate wines, and a host of other Riesling magnums and double mags, were poured at a CellarHand welcoming party in honour of the European visitors, attended by many friends from the Melbourne wine trade as well as other visiting winemakers. That’s what the ice chest was for: a Saturday night garden party like any other – but with more German accents and smarter wines.
Sunday 8th February saw the start of Riesling Downunder proper, kicking off with Riesling Riot, a five-hour public tasting at The Peninsula in Melbourne’s Docklands. More than 70 producers presented their wares to 300+ attendees. Almost as soon as you entered the hall, you were greeted by the smiling face of Willi Bründlmayer of the Kamptal (above), whose winery Jancis Robinson refers to as “a beacon for Austrian wine”.
Across the room from Willi was Sarah Löwenstein from Mosel winery Heymann-Löwenstein. She was pleased to be travelling with her good friend Kathrin – Kaddie to her friends – Starker, who makes the wine alongside Sarah’s father, Reinhard. As always, the wines are thrilling and thought-provoking – the kind of Riesling that is always one step ahead of you.
Cornelius Dönnhoff from the Nahe region of Germany was also there. It’s often said that these wines are close to perfection. Presumably in this photo Cornelius is explaining exactly how close. The wines he showed to the public were all newish arrivals from 2013: the estate dry Riesling; the Tonschiefer Riesling (from grey-slate soils) and the airy and aromatic off-dry Oberhäuser Leistenberg Kabinett.
Johannes Hasselbach arrived in Melbourne with a cold he’d picked up from his two young children during the chilly winter in his native Rheinhessen. Combined with the jet lag, it wasn’t the ideal state to be in for such a gruelling schedule. But you could barely keep the smile off his face – especially when he clapped eyes on his good friend Theresa Breuer, of Rheingau winery Georg Breuer.
On Sunday night, the scene was set for a very special dinner at Tonka, off Flinders Lane in the heart of Melbourne. Modestly titled Rockstars of Riesling, the dinner was the brainchild of Tonka sommelier Travis Howe and featured the wines of eight producers in the CellarHand portfolio. Seven of them are pictured above. They are (from left to right, with the wine served in brackets following their name): Lucas and Johanna Pichler (FX Pichler ‘Dürnsteiner Hollerin’ Smaragd 2008); Steffen Christmann (A. Christmann ‘Königsbacher Ölberg’ 2013); Philipp Wittmann (Wittmann Westhofener Morstein Grosses Gewächs 2009); Theresa Breuer (Georg Breuer Rüdeshemer Berg Schlossberg Grosses Gewächs 2012); Johannes Hasselbach (Gunderloch Nackenheimer Rothenberg’Auslese 2006); Erni Loosen (Dr. Loosen ‘Erdener Prälat’ Kabinett 1980 and Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Auslese 2009); and Cornelius Dönnhoff (Dönnhoff Norheimer Dellchen Grosses Gewächs 2007). Missing from the laneway photo-op is Sarah Löwenstein, whose Heymann-Löwenstein Winninger Röttgen 2009 was served at the dinner.
The Rockstars evening featured a delicious, four-course meal of light, subtly spiced new-wave Indian cuisine lovingly matched with the wines. It was open to the public, with plenty of other Riesling Downunder winemakers also grabbing a ticket. Here’s a photo of the so-called Rockstars’ table, with Johanna and Lucas Pichler closest to the camera.
Monday marked the first of two days of masterclasses at Riesling Downunder. The above shot was taken in the kitchen at the Peninsula, where a pack of wine-loving professionals volunteered to open, check, taste and pour the wines for the various themed tastings – one of off-dry to super sweet wines, one on ancient and contemporary winemaking techniques, another featuring Rieslings from emerging regions, another again for aged wines and the fifth a monster, 30-wine session looking at dry Rieslings from across the globe. This is where the 2013 Wittmann Morstein Grosses Gewächs Riesling pictured above came in. And bloody good it was, too.
It must have been about this time that someone pointed out, I think not unfairly, that the wine’s creator – 2014 Gault Millau Winemaker of the Year, Philipp Wittmann – was pretty much the George Clooney of German wine. Judge for yourself.
The weather throughout Riesling Downunder was great, as you can see from this photo of Alsatian visitor Freddie Blanck of Domaine Paul Blanck in Kientzheim, pictured here having a playful tussle with Mornington Peninsula-based viticulturist son, Lucas.
And on Tuesday night the curtain came down on Riesling Downunder. There was time for a quick snap before the Europeans divided into four groups, with dinners and tastings planned at Harry & Frankie, Bar Nacional, Rathdowne Cellars,City Wine Shop and Milton Wine Shop.
Wednesday morning was time for something different: a Riesling classification tasting and discussion. If that sounds a bit dry… it is. But it’s vital that sommeliers and others in the industry understand the laws governing quality and style in Europe’s top winegrowing regions. German and Austrian Riesling is less baffling than many assume but there are subtleties to it and a little understanding goes a long way. That’s why we invited a range of industry professionals and members of Sommeliers Australia to Supernormal in Flinders Lane for this intimate gathering. Why Supernormal? The answer lies in the photo above. They are believers…
We asked three winemakers to explain their classification system to those gathered, with a flight of wines to illustrate the characteristics of each category. The presenters were Steffen Christmann (above, left, with Franz-Josef Gansberger – aka Goose – of Stadt Krems), who as president of Germany’s VDP was ideally placed to explain the system in his homeland. Also speaking were Lucas Pichler, of FX Pichler in Austria’s Wachau region, and Willi Bründlmayer, who talked us through the system for the Association of Austrian Traditional Wine Estates.
Afterwards we crossed Flinders Lane to The Chapter House for a tasting of single-vineyard Rieslings. Each of the European producers, as well as Frankland Estate and clos Clare, showed two wines from one special vineyard each – say, one current vintage and one aged Riesling, or one dry and one sweet. It was a truly fantastic line-up of wines to show to a select band of Melbourne sommeliers and wine writers. Hamming it up in the picture above are Dominik Sona of Koehler-Ruprecht in the Pfalz, along with Kaddie Starker and Johannes Hasselbach.
Johannes hogged a fair bit of limelight, as this was also the sole Australian showing of the Wurzelwerk project wines. This is a three-way, border-hopping juice-swap initiative between Gunderloch in the Rheinhessen, Alwin and Stefanie Jurtschitsch of Weingut Jurtschitsch in the Kamptal in Austria, and Maximilian Von Kunow of Weingut Von Hövel in the Saar. In 2012, the three wineries swapped a portion of their harvest from their finest vineyard – Rothenberg for Johannes, Heiligenstein for Jurtschitsch and Scharzhofberg for Von Hövel – and made a wine each from all three sites with minimal intervention (spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel). The idea was to get a fresh perspective on their own patch of dirt, and a deeper understanding of what terroir and Riesling are all about. The nine, eye-catchingly packaged wines (one from each producer from every vineyard) provided an enthralling study for the somms and journalists present.
The shared respect, flow of knowledge and indeed friendship between winemakers from all corners of the planet was a constant theme. Here’s a photo of Belinda Thomson of great Victorian Riesling grower Crawford River catching up with Goose of Stadt Krems. In a similar vein it gave an opportunity for Australia’s wine writers to have an in-depth catch-up with the Europeans. In some cases these friendships go back many years, such as that between fellow members of the Académie Internationale du Vin, Willi Bründlmayer and James Halliday.
There was a brief moment at the end of the so-called Single-Site Symposium when the group, seemingly in a state of flux since they touched down, got to sit still for a second and pose for a group photo.
Then it was off for a public tasting and dinner at Prince Wine Store in South Melbourne, an independent outlet whose newly opened Sydney sibling hosted the same group a couple of evenings later. Hard to say if it’s a Riesling thing or pure coincidence, but three of the protagonists of the Prince tasting – Patrick Walsh of CellarHand, Erni Loosen and former Prince Wine Store partner Philip Rich – all turned up in matching checked shirts.
And from there to Sydney for the final stretch of the tour. Thursday afternoon saw a repeat of the Single-Site Symposium, while United Cellars hosted the Europeans for an evening tasting. After that, there was time for a quick drink at Opera Bar, where Theresa Breuer and Johanna Pichler called the shots.
And by then they’d shown their sites and seen the sights. The most noble of the noble-grape’s proponents had been reduced to little more than a rabble of Riesling nuts. Here they are, on the harbour, saying good night once and for all.
What an honour it was to have them here, and to shine the spotlight once more on this most beautiful of white-wine grapes. Until next time: Prost und tschüß!