Community Tasting Note
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Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 93 points
August 20, 2021 - Under the wonderful screw cap (Northern hemisphere take note damn you!). 2012 was a splendid vintage in most parts of Oz, after a vile, wet and cold vintage in 2011. An issue with some cooler climate Oz wines (mostly reds, though I have seen it in some whites) from this vintage is that it was on the cooler side and there was rain. Clare should have been fine.
Being an Oz Riesling with some age, will there be 'kero' elements on the nose, what will the acid be like and will it take any prisoners? Clare is a region with strong affinity for Riesling and Pikes have fine vineyards, tradition and feel for the variety. Lovely people, too.
Green gold, still quite bright. For an Oz Riesling colour speaks to some development, but not an old wine.
The nose has hints of kero, but no more than a whisper (for me this is good as I have limited tolerance for this character). Lemon curd, lime and smells fresh and intense.
In the mouth this is intense, with a long finish and the acid is not as rustic as it can be with many Oz Rieslings. This is delicious. it is still very fresh and could easily develop for another decade and hold well beyond that. Flavours are as per the nose. Oz Riesling doesn't get a whole lot better than this and for the price this is outrageously good value. Pikes must be true friends of the working man (or woman, if you are one)!
This has the same relationship to German Riesling as Oz Chardonnays do to White Burgundy and Chablis - same grape but very different expression. Drink this with some photos in front of you of the wide open country around Clare (Oz, not damp Ireland), Paul Kelly, Men at Work, Shane Howard and Australian Crawl on the stereo and you will be in the right space. A few Tom Roberts paintings/prints would also help, as would Russel Drysdale's 'The Cricketers'. Fill yer boots, moit! Throw another prawn on the barbie.1 person found this helpful 789 views