TN: Houghton Frankland River Riesling 2000

[Waiters Friend]

I have a friend who is retired, and we have an arrangement for wine deliveries. Most of my wine orders get sent to him, and we split a bottle of wine (either from the delivery, or I bring one) when I collect. It's a good opportunity to catch up with him on a regular basis, and he gets to share some good wines.

Recently, he has developed a taste for older (Alsace and Australian) rieslings. My recent TN on Petaluma Riesling 2000 was a wine I shared with him and his wife. Another wine order came through a few days later, so I thought I would pull out another 2000 - the Houghton.

I didn't expect as much from the Houghton as I had from the Petaluma. I was wrong

The cork came out very well, and the colour of the wine was that of a 5 year old riesling, not 12. No hint of kero whatsoever, and the wine was way less developed than the Petaluma. Acidity was keeping the wine fresh, and the crunchy lime flavour was in no way honeyed or 'cordially'. Long crisp finish, after some florals and just a moderate amount of development.

This was a revelation for a 12 year old riesling, and beat the Petaluma hands down (I had passed over the Houghtons in favour of the Petaluma for a dinner a few days earlier). While the Petaluma was towards the end of its life, this was in the middle, and could go another decade.

The only regret is that I was driving, and had to leave about half the bottle with my friend. He didn't argue

Cheers

Allan

[Mahmoud Ali]

Lovely report on a WA riesling, amazing that it presents such a youthful profile. My only WA riesling in the cellar is a 1999 Plantagenet and judging by the Houghton I suspect it needs more time.

Mahmoud

[dlo]

From my experience, Allan, Petaluma's Clare Riesling has never been that consistent a performer on the longevity front. I've been drinking the label since the fabulous and famous 1980 vintage and have shaken my head on more than one occasion when the realisation of premature wastage of the remaining case reared its ugly head. Normally, one tries a company's wine at release and if, like in Petaluma's case per se, the wine is ripe (Brian Croser liked to opt for a later pick date than most), soft and forward (and almost way too nice to drink as a youngster) you would probably only opt for buying a few bottles and drink them pretty much in the near term. But, in my case, with many hundreds of bottles of Australian riesling in your cellar at any one time, it's ohso easy to let intense/regular monitoring pass you by, so I consider some spoilage as part and parcel of having a considerable inventory and seeking to get as much bottle development as possible from your stash. And let's face it, most Aussie riesling from the renowned cooler climes is capable of pushing the envelope to around the 10-12 year mark. After reading Ian n4sir's recent note on Jeanneret's 2002 Clare Riesling, I grabbed one from the cellar to check out, and, yessiree, this label/year has, almost quite strangely, developed rapidly in the last few years. Prior to that, I was predicting a long and relatively chequered future for this racy, tight, acid-rich and, what promised to be, slow-developing white wine. My screw-capped bottle wasn't anywhere near terminal but the colour had changed considerably and the tell-tale signs of maturity/some fragility were quite apparent. And then, on the other hand, you get wine's like Leo Buring's 1990 and 1991 Leonay from Eden and Clare Valley. Apart from the 1990 Clare (a much faster developer and now well and truly passed its best) the other three thoroughbred's all paced themselves brilliantly, with the 1990 Eden and 1991 Watervale sitting at benchmark level year after year with only very minor cork-derived bottle variation and little (if any) degradation through the second decade of their existence. Today, good bottles (remember these were bottled under cork seals) of the 1991 Eden (always the sleeper amongst this distinguished group) still have some way to go to reach their zenith.

Over the years, Houghton have made some stunningly good, long-lived riesling from their considerable holdings in the Frankland River/Mt Barker regions. That 2000 sounds a ripper and from what I've gleaned above, to get 12 years out of that 2000 Petaluma is, and particularly for the vintage, no mean feat. Thanks for the note.