Dry Riesling Q?

I brought my 2012 white wines in from the garage after cold stabilization a few days ago. I tasted them all earlier today and am truly amazed at the Riesling. I have always bottled my Riesling with some RS, either with a cane sugar addition or, preferably, sussreserve, if I remembered to freeze some of the fresh pressed juice. I've always felt that a touch of sweetness, .75% to 1.25% enhances the fruitiness. However, this wine is very good bone dry and I can't see how any sweetening would be an improvement. Another interesting point is that the numbers at crush would not have indicated this: 19.0 Brix; .88 TA; 2.9 pH. I will retest the acid numbers in the next few days. It was fermented using Montrachet yeast, a strain I used to use frequently, but not in several years and never on Riesling. So, my question is how well will a bone dry Riesling age? People mention that one of the reasons Riesling is considered age worthy is due to the RS. I know it would be easy to just say "Open one every now and then and when it starts going downhill, drink it up", however if it will not age more than 2-3 years, I would use a different type of cork than if it were to age 5-10 years. Any ideas or suggestions?

[David M. Bueker]

Howie,

Guessing how long a wine will age is a game for the gods, but I am still enjoying dry Rieslings from the early 1990s.

Based on your acid numbers, I would guess that this wine would age very well and for quite some time.

Dry Riesling ages very well in Australia (up to 30 years at times) as long as the finished alcohol level is not overly high, acidity is relatively high (ph <3, TA 8-10 g/litre) and the fruit is physiologically ripe but, if anything, preferably a little under (than over-) done. Your numbers look good to me. Most of the better producers here use free run juice, no skin contact, cool ferments and minimal sulphur (particularly now with screwcaps being used almost exclusively).

Most of our better dry Rieslings from the cooler climates last about 10 years.

Good to know. Thanks everyone. I'll use the long term corks. It will probably be a few weeks before I get around to bottling it, as my son announced his engagement and will be married next winter, so I have to get a big batch of bubbly going first.

Howie, we are not surprised when one of your wines comes up with the potential to be a super wine. Now just one more thing to say. If you wind up with only one bottle to sell or give away, I have dibs!