When Rieslings weren’t Rieslings

Riesling in the 1960s and 1970s in Australia was often a generic term, not just the formal name of the grape used in making a wine.

As noted in an earlier piece, the Australian wine industry adopted many terms from the British trade (Hock and Moselle come to mind), but the generic use of “Riesling” seems to be a particularly Australian phenomenon.

It was used to describe (generally) any light, delicate style of wine.

All sorts of grapes/blends were used in “Riesling” production. Some of which were from leftfield.

Makers of more serious wines took to labelling their wines “Rhine Riesling” in order to emphasise that the wine was made with real Riesling grapes, not other ring-ins.

Eventually the generic usage was phased out, partly voluntarily, and partly from pressure from the EUC, and the term “Rhine Riesling” has disappeared from use.

At that time, even Hunter Valley Semillon was labelled “Hunter River Riesling”, an indicator that dry, delicate wine was in the bottle.

This was partly to gain markets outside of New South Wales; Hunter Valley wines have always been a hard sell in Victoria and South Australia and this was probably just another attempt by the marketeers to crack the uncrackable.

This did the Semillon variety (or Riesling for that matter) no favours.

Semillon in the right hands (in the vineyard and the winery) is one of the great grape varieties.

It finds its highest use as the dominant variety of Sauternes (it likes gravelly soils and is susceptible to botrytis), and is dominant in many dry White Bordeaux, where it is native. The drier wines produced in Australia solely from the variety (space precludes inclusion of Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc blends) are distinctive and in many ways unique.

They are unfashionable, therefore low-priced and in many ways one of our great bargains. They make interesting young wines – refreshing, un-oaked, low-alcohol, and high acid. The structure of the wines, along with this acidity, also give them great ageing potential, resulting in toasty complexity with age.

In South Australia, look for wines from Peter Lehmann and Mount Horrocks. From the Hunter, seek out wines from McWilliams, Brokenwood and Tyrells (among others), particularly bin number wines, and those with some age.

We have recently been impressed with several vintages of Hunter Valley De Iuliis wines, both white and red.

Their entry-level 2016 Hunter Valley Semillon represents wonderful value at $23.

Light, delicate, with lifted citrus characters it is a great seafood wine, or try it with dishes of a more delicate flavour. And at 10.9 per cent A/V it won’t blow your head off! It is also age-worthy.