Framingham Select Riesling 2016
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Robert
Parker
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Opening with notes of lemon curd, mandarin peel and honeysuckle with a touch of lanolin, the 2016 Select Riesling is a lower alcohol (8.5%), medium-sweet style that bursts in the mouth with perfumed citrus flavors and finishes long and refreshing. Rating: 89(+) Points.
In a cluttered wine landscape, Framingham does things differently! With its first Wairau Valley vines were planted back in 1981 on warm, well-drained stony soils, the winery continues to utilize small batch winemaking techniques for depth of flavor and texture. Framingham takes a low-impact approach to vineyard management to restore balance with the land. The team does a lot of work by hand, avoiding systemic chemicals and planting flowers that encourage biodiversity.
Framingham is the home to the legendary annual Framingham Harvest concert, attended by international vintage workers and locals who come to celebrate in the Framingham winery courtyard. Up and coming bands from New Zealand take to the stage, including Framingham’s very own winery band, Renwick Nudes.
Framingham is accredited as a sustainable vineyard and winery under the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand program, the Estate vineyard is also Certified Organic through BioGro NZ Ltd. It's Sauvignon Blancs are Marlborough Appellation Wine Certified.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.