2024 *Frequency* Riesling

Story

Tim and Ella have a very special site which produces fruit with a unique DNA that could only be from their vineyard Dragon Bones. Some growers grow fruit and some grow wine and they grow wine. This is a site that has the ability to make many different expressions of Riesling and Tim has the hand that could bring all of them to life. We are always at the mercy of Mother Nature as growers and Waitaki Valley would be one of the most difficult places to produce a good crop each year. It takes determination, obsession, curiosity and a connection to place that I feel Tim has and it comes through so clear in the wines. One day I will have a place close by to their vineyard as I’m very confident it will produce some of the greatest Riesling I will make in my lifetime.

Tasting Notes

Limestone – I have licked it in the vineyard and it’s in the wine – preserved lemon, candied pineapple, honeysuckle, green apple skins and beeswax to taste. The architecture of this wine is like a perfect lasagna; a rich layering of creamy solids, chewy acid, chalky tannins and fruit power, fused together by fermentation. I have always spoken about wine in shapes, because I can visualise the movement and lines so clearly, but this fruit has shown me a new way to see Riesling. When I close my eyes and drink this wine, I peel back each layer like an onion, or I visualise a flower in bloom. It’s a depth of flavour that belongs to its length of time on vine and ability to grow in the beautiful vice that is Waitaki.