Hi all!
This sweet Agnes riesling from Seifried is the first sweet wine that we have tasted and reviewed for our blog. Riesling is one of the common grape varietals that is used to make sweet wines due to its high acidity, which can well balance the sweetness to prevent it from becoming too flabby.
A lot of sweet rieslings are made in Germany where they have specific legal definitions to show the sweetness of a wine. These sweet wines can be made in many different ways. One method is to simply leave the grapes to ripen for longer, which produces more sugar in the grapes. Other methods include drying out the grapes, freezing the grapes to not dilute the sugar content, or introducing noble rot into the grape which will remove water content and leave the grape sweet.
This particular riesling is not made in Germany but instead in Nelson. The grapes are left to ripen on the vine until they are shrivelled up and the grape has a high sugar content. Using this method, the final product is a very sweet wine with a residual sugar content of 177g/L.
Price:
You can purchase this wine for NZ$ 29.00 ( £13.90, R326.38, US$17.70) on the Seifried website. This bottle, like most sweet wines, is only 375ml so a half bottle. This does make it a bit more expensive than other wines we have reviewed, but honestly, we think it’s worth it based on how delicious this is. And since we are wine students we can pass it off as an educational expense 😉.
Appearance:
Like many sweet wines, this Agnes riesling had a golden lemon colour, however, the intensity was medium to low so you could still see through it.
Nose:
Straight off the bat, this wine smelt immediately sweet. There were aromas of honey and very ripe papaya alongside stone fruit like peaches and more tropical mango notes. It was quite fascinating just how much this wine smelled like papaya. It was extremely enticing and made us want to drink up.
Palate:
The first notes we got were sweet and citrusy. It initially tasted almost exactly like a lemon drizzle cake and candied oranges. However, the dominant note throughout was honey. It came through and made the wine feel silky smooth. There was also an interesting level of spices, particularly ginger and cinnamon that made it taste nice and familiar. The wine was super complex but also it felt simple and homely.
As mentioned many times, this wine was very sweet. The sweetness not only came through in the taste but also allowed it to feel very round and silky, it was very viscous due to all of the residual sugar so it really coats the whole of your mouth. It has a very long finish so that amazing taste will stick with you for a long time. There is still a decent level of acidity that manifests in that citrus taste, which makes the wine really drinkable and delicious.
Conclusion:
We really can’t stress enough how beautiful this wine tasted, it was an almost magical experience. We first tried it at the Seifried estate as part of our wine-tasting and we went back and forth deciding whether or not to buy a bottle to take back and review due to it being more expensive than other wines we have tried. However the wine was really fantastic and we just had to go for it. Its nice and low in alcohol content so it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly sticky and rich, just the perfect amount.
This wine would pair well with rich cheese. Either a crumbly pungent blue cheese such as a stilton, or a creamy delicate cheese like an époisses or a baked brie. Pile up your cheese on a cracker with a sweet chutney and you’re good to go.
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