Collage by Marcelo Monreal, Brazil Ravensworth Murrumbateman Riesling 2017
($38; 12% alcohol; screw cap)
Pretty much the most vibrant Riesling bouquet to tickle this old smell box in years, this baby's just jumping with pretty meadow florals and something like a transporting lemon and white pepper pickle: it's tropical and wondrous in its complexity.
Milton Wordley brought this bottle back from Bryan Martin and poured me a glass, which I was content to just sit there sniffing for half an hour. Twas almost as if to drink any would be to waste that swoony perfume.
"Fermented wild and warm in ceramic ovum, left on-lees for the rest of the year," the label advises. That worked!
I've guarded that magic bottle opened now for two days and the end of it's still singing that same fragrant gloria. Drink, and the creamy texture reminds one that below all those pretties and appetising savouries in the bouquet, there are also the comforting aromas of smooth pink flesh.
If you chill the wine - careful! - a drier, hazy whiff of burlap wraps it up. I like just a touch of that so recommend drinking it at Casa Blanca kitchen-windowsill-in- the-wintry-afternoon-shade temperature.
Speaking of windows, I refer one to the scene in Louis Malle's Atlantic City where the Susan Sarandon character comes home from a shift shucking oysters to wash her upper body in lemon juice.
No wonder the damn thing sold out.
If you need any convincing of the rare gastronomic intelligence of this special viniculturer, winemaker and chef, who is also winemaker at Clonakilla, where this wine was made, check his gorgeous cookbook Tongue & Cheek.
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