The Wine-Press CHARM OF YOUTH

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 21

The Wine-Press CHARM OF YOUTH

(BU J. C. GRAHAM) (Published by arrangement with the f, N.Z. Economist and Taxpayer”) As a general principle, white wines mature earlier than red ‘ and can be drunk much younger. Some people - maintain that the ■ fresher the better. The ’ majority, I think, will i find them better after ! being put away for a year or so. The fact remains that very ’ newly-made white wine has a ’ charm all its own. Not sur- ’ prisingly, it is the basis of : many wine festivals in older 1 countries. ’ It was an admirable idea of the Wine and Food Society in Auckland to arrange an opportunity to try a number of local dry white wines of the new vintage. We had an exceptional late summer in Auckland. There was virtually no autumn. The long, hot sunny days seemed to go on for ever until winter came in with a cold blast. Such conditions promised an exceptional vintage. We were able to try seven dry whites which had been from only a week to a month > in the bottle. It can be said at once that the promise of ’ the weather is being realised. I feel that a lack in many New Zealand table wines as compared with fine wines from abroad is in depth and variety of taste sensation. A good Rhine wine suggests many things— sweetness and acidity, a trace of astringency beneath its mellowness, fruitiness refined to a dry finish. Most New Zealand wines are simpler and less versatile in stimulating the taste buds, even when very pleasant. Certainly it would be grossly unfair to expect : brand new wines to develop . such varied qualities. Yet the best of those

tried already carried a hint of depth, body and variety of appeal. They showed little of the roughness which marks much new wine. Great Virtue Their great virtue at this stage is freshness—a quality of taste and fragrance and texture so distinctive that it carried several of those present back years to evenings in the Vienna Woods, to the season when every heuriger in Grinzing is thronged and new wine is quaffed in copious drafts. And in spite of memories of the romantic setting, the lights and the music and the ; heady atmosphere which pervades the locality, several were moved to comment that the wine served on such occa- ' sions was far and away ’ inferior to some of the samples we tried the other ’ night Incidentally all the wines tried were “masked” until after comments had been made on them—that is the labels were concealed so that no one knew the grower or the brand name. The wines tried were only from vineyards in the vicinity of Auckland. But for the record, the almost universal choice among those near me, at any rate, was Corban’s Riverlea Riesling. Running it close and rating high with nearly everyone was a simple dry white from a much smaller vineyard, Babich’s. Both these wines and several of the others gave the impression that they would improve further with a bit more age. But it is early yet to say with any certainty that they would finally emerge as pick of the bunch. Summer Sunshine Some of the others were hardly true to type at the present time since they were rather too sweet and some at the moment left an undesirable aftertaste. They might well lose their vices "and acquire new virtues after a

few more months in the bottle. I have just given personal preferences as of now. And the fact is that nearly all those tried have already developed remarkably for such very young wines. You can almost taste last summer’s sunshine.