The Doctors’ Marlborough Riesling

This Riesling is sweet with apricots and apple, balanced with a certain acidity and even carries notes of petrol and comes from John Forrest’s great Forrest Winery.  But puzzlingly, it is not his best work.  The grapes are harvested early to keep their sugar levels lower. But even so and with a cool, slow fermentation which is arrested early at around 9% alcohol the residual sugar level remains quite high at 28 g/l and, whilst this would be quite normal in Germany, it’s not what one would hope from a NZ version.  John and Beth Forrest prove that they can do better with the own label version they produce for Adnams, which is a tad stronger at 9.5% , but much more satisfyingly balanced and consequently feels more dry.  So for the modern palate, I suspect the Adnams version will please more people.