WTN: 06 Fromm Rieslings, New Zealand

One of the reasons I joined WLDG was the abundance of knowledge of all things Riesling, particulary from Germany. Regrettably these are expensive wines in Aus - the 07 Kabinetts from JJ Prum and Egon Muller are $A60 to $A70 each. So as well as Germany I look to New Zealand for Riesling satisfaction, and this week I found it in spades in these two wines.

2006 Fromm Spatlese Riesling: Lovely. Lemon and lime rind, some slightly sulphury minerally slately goodness. Some peach and cherry emerge as the wine opens up. This is a composition of flavour richness, and the acid and sugar tussle evenly to keep this razor sharp, to the point it takes some time in the glass to be drinkable. Right now it needs food, but over time this should open up to be a beauty. Outstanding style, great wine.

2006 Fromm Auslese Riesling: Hold my calls, I have something important to do. These guys have got this nailed. Tight, delicately flavoured and yielding little at this stage, this looks built for a long sleep. It gives up a waft of mandarin fruit, and with some airtime a bit of lime, It also has the Auslese fruit density that shows as blackcurrant. This doesn’t come across as dessert wine sweet, it is old school German auslese. At the moment better sited as an aperitif. Well sulphured, rippingly acidic (12 hours later my teeth are still sensitive), leave this alone for a few years and it will grow into something spectacular. Outstanding.

Wow.

Cheers

Andrew

I am interested to know what the back label says! I imagine the average punter down there does not know/understand the difference `twixt Auslese and Spatlese (grin wink).

2006 Fromm Auslese Riesling: Hold my calls, I have something important to do. These guys have got this nailed ..... This doesn’t come across as dessert wine sweet, it is old school German auslese. At the moment better sited as an aperitif. Well sulphured, rippingly acidic (12 hours later my teeth are still sensitive), leave this alone for a few years and it will grow into something spectacular. Outstanding.

You echo my thoughts. I had thee two wines in Marlborough in October 2007 - still so young. I wrote on my blog, "At the Marlborough Wine Weekend, Fromm Riesling Spatlese 2006 (7.5% alcohol) rescued me from alcohol overload at the Supper Club party, while the next day at the "Riesling Rendezvous", it was the Fromm Riesling Auslese 2006 (also 7.5% alcohol) that was the perfect pre-lunch aperitif. "

Was your Auslese in a 375 or 750 ml bottle?

Cheers,
Sue

Hi Sue, The Auslese was the 375ml.

Bob, thanks for that prompt, you're right, particularly with use of those term sin the new world. The technical data from the Fromm website is:

Spatlese: 7.5% abv, ta 9.9g/l, ph 2.68 Residual sugar 79g/l

Auslese: 7.0% abv, ta 8.6g/l, ph 2.70, Residal sugar 86g/l

Andrew

I’ve enjoyed Te Whare Ra rieslings from New Zealand but always wished for more RS. I tried to get some of this Spatlese after reading Sue Courtney’s review of Christmas ’07, but the same result came back then as now on Wine Searcher Pro: it just isn’t available in the USA. Damn. Are there other German-style Kiwi Rieslings you can recommend?