I couldn't help myself. I came home, found some wine waiting for me, and had to try one.

This wine was scored a 95 out of 100 by the Australian wine critic/writer James Halliday. It was my first (but by no means LAST) top quality Australian Riesling.

This stuff is nothing like German Riesling! It is fermented dry (or, at least, it tastes that way), to an alcohol level of 12.5%. It is a steely wine with bracing acidity and an invigorating lemon/lime taste, which gives way to grapefruit and a little bit of Cling Peach on the finish -- which, by the way, never does (finish, that is). This being my first experience with this style, I couldn't accurately rate it myself, although I can comfortably say that it isa great QPR at approximately US$15.
Mrs Stemor just ran out for our favorite Chinese dish, which is chicken with spice, spice, and more spice. It'll be interesting to see how this pairs with it, although I expect them to complement each other perfectly.

Hi Stephen

I guess the wine arrived eh!

Glad to see all went smoothly.

You are correct, not at all Germanic, except for the touch of steeliness and occasionally minerals in Clare and Watervale, bone dry generally, but fruity with it.

Someone once described them, a bit flowery but surprisingly accurate, as smelling like lime juice dribbled over orange blossom, not so incorrect really.

Not sure how it'll go with the spicy food, but fresh seafood, grilled fish, shell fish without rich sauces is ideal.

BTW this wine will age beautifully for 10 years! it will develop toast and honey complexity so you may wish to cellar some (or not) . They can close up at about 3 years, so young and fresh, or 5 years plus is my suggestion.

BTW in my opinion the Petaluma is even better, longer and very pristine.

Wonderful. Just have to get through these holidays (getting killed this year) & I will be contacting our friend here.

Ooooh stemor, you make me want to sing a Judas Priest song -- Breakin' the Law, Breakin the law!!!!

who is stehpen?

"Uh, ... confirmed... , Adelaide, the ... Eagle has ... Landed."

And you're right, Gavin, the whole "Riesling & Spicy" thing doesn't really hold up with this wine. For experimentation purposes (scientific interests only, I assure you!), I also re-opened bottles of:

Alsatian ('01 Trimbach),
American ('01 CSM-Dr Loosen Eroica), and
German ('01 Kurt Darting Nonnengarten Kabinett

Neither the Australian nor the Alsatian worked ideally with our dish, which was based on a sweetish red chili sauce, due to the tart flavors and teeth-clenchin acidity of each of these young dry wines. i could see these pairing beautifully with a white fish poached in lemon butter or shellfish.

The US and German versions are sweeter and showing more tropical fruit, less dominated by the citrus flavors. They went very well with tonight's dinner.

I'll tell you what, though. It is now 1.5 hours after finishing dinner, and I still have a lingering fresh taste from the Sevenhill, not something that I might have expected from a white wine prior to this experience.

Next up for me: One of those mouth-staining, knee buckling, 16% EtOH Olivershill Jimmy Block Shiraz monsters that you unleashed on these shores! Just maybe not tonight ...

Oh, you might be interested in how I chose to open THIS wine vs the Petaluma or Knappstein:

Only ONE case of Knappstein Hand Picked vs TWO of the others
Petaluma has a cork, Sevenhill has a Stelvin closure.

I forgot to mention, this was my first experience with a top-quality wine in a Stelvin, also.

a stelvin closure? splain pls

TJ,
I could be wrong, but I think it's a type of screwcap.

bman, you are correct. Stelvin is the product name of the most widely accepted screwtop product for wine out there. The company that manufactures it is French, but the name escapes me for the moment.

TJ, what ^^ they ^^ said.

It's a screwcap. Australia seems to be leading the world in trying these non-TCA tainting thingies. Whether they come with their own problems remains to be seen ...

I think this is why the move away from cork hasn't happened sooner. Better the devil you know than the one you don't.

skwid,
While what you say is true, screwcaps do not make very good memoboards, dartboards, or boards of any other type. They resist pushpins, and fasteners of all types (except magnets). They also do not look as cute in baskets or on displays of any sort.

When we were in Napa/Sonoma in the summer of 2001, Ravenswood had a life-sized cow made entirely of corks. Had it been screwcaps, it probably would have made a good lightning rod, but not a very good cow (corks make FINE udders!!).

I wonder if any winemakers are willing to test screw caps with some of their reds that are ageworthy to see what happens. Somebody needs to do it sooner or later. If there is a way to eliminate cork taint and other cork related problems, I am all for it (despite my love of cork).

Hello

Reds in Stelvin are slowly happening here in Australia. Jeffrey Grosset put some of his top blend in Stelvin (its called Gaia) and it sold out much faster than the corked version.

Others are also using stelvin slowly.

What is really needed is a large production wine like Jacobs Creek or similar to be stelvin capped, with so much bought and enjoyed, this would make the stelvin cap seem usual to the wine drinker.

I have talked to many wine makers and the only thing holding them back generally is, will the wine lover accept and buy the wines in stelvin?