Wine Review: A 'ripper' RS28 Riesling from Mac Forbes

My present wine fetishes include getting stuck into cheap restaurant house-wine when travelling in Italy (how do they get those cheap carafes of house wine to taste so good?) and off-dry Riesling.

At the wine-geek level, I’m pretty hopeless at picking the residual sugar levels in wine. And I don’t really care. As long as the wine is delicious it should matter not. You see, it’s a tricky business. Wines with some residual sugar in them can seem a lot drier than you would expect if they have high levels of acidity. It’s just one of those magic things that happens; acidity tends to temper sugar in wine.

This little ripper from Mac Forbes down Yarra Valley way is a prime example. The RS28 stands, funnily enough, for 28 grams per litre of residual sugar and when you consider that the general rule of thumb that anything below four grams per litre is dry, you’d expect this to be a bit of a sweet thing … but not necessarily.

The acidity reins everything in here and while it is certainly off-dry, there are no cloying flavours — just a wonderful of richness and purity of fruit in the mouth. Aromas and flavours of white peach, citrus and nashi pear with hints of soft spice, brioche, almond blossom and creaminess.

Try this with roast pork, or just consume in a responsible manner any time of the day with friends.

MAC FORBES 2017 RS28 Strathbogie Ranges Riesling

macforbes.com