Crawford River 'Museum Release' Riesling 2017

All the wine is bottled at once, then matured in cellar for these museum releases. This was 100% whole bunch pressed, left on lees for six weeks. There’s no ‘Museum Release’ notification on the bottle, which would be nice for those who have cellared their own and now maybe buying this, but hey, a quibble!

Wow stuff. The measure of freshness, crisp, crunchy acidity and the benign decay on hand, is stunning. Waxy texture with glassy edges, an almost honey nut cornflake character married to brown lime, ginger biscuit, green apple, pink grapefruit. There’s savouriness rolling through, light toffee sweetness, the friskiness of briny minerality too. It paints a picture in layers and texture, energy and depth. An almost prickly hiss of fizz under everything. The drinkability is through the roof. Alongside, a distinct feel of complexity; the essence of that that there is concentration of fruit and age, a wonderful mesh of the maturing characters alongside inherent brightness and lift. Sheesh. Drink 2024-2035+. 97 points. - Mike Bennie, Wine Front (July 2024).