Clonakilla rieslings

Two Clonakilla rieslings: 2005 and 2002. I retrieved these from the cellar a little while ago and decided to have a vertical tonight. These two vintages were my preferred Clonakilla
Rieslings between the 2002 and 2006 period. We had the 2006 a little while ago and found it a bit blah. Its flavour profile struck me as too broad and its structure somewhat flat.

By contrast, I remember tasting the 2005 at cellar door and remarking on its tightness and relative austerity. The 2002, in the year of its release, was my equal favourite riesling (along with the Mesh of the same vintage). Time to reivisit both and re-evaluate my initial impressions.

We had the 2005 first. I don't think this has developed significantly since release; it still tastes very primary and pretty much as I remember it. It's one of those chalky/floral/mineral rieslings (which I love), bone dry, with a lovely caressing acidity. Much more elegant and interesting than the 2006.

The 2002, by contrast, has started to show aged characters, and they are most attractive. The nose is still quite primary, and fairly subdued, with perhaps just an edge of honeyed sweetness alongside its powdery/floral aromas. The palate is where the age of the wine shows most, characterised as it is by an intense honey flavour. It's a delicious honey flavour ("high quality honey", we agreed) that is prevented from being at all cloying by all the primary flavours that surround it, and the still-zingy acidity that underlies the wine's structure. As the wine sat in glass, the honey flavour morphed into a sort of honey on buttered crumpet flavour that we both agreed was totally delcious. I think we'll be leaving the rest of the dozen a year or so before sampling again.