Published by Jeremy.
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One of our favorite things about Riesling, beyond its delicious flavor, of course, is that it can be grown just about anywhere that grapes thrive. Cold climate? Yep. Warm climate? You got it.
This means many wine regions are growing this versatile grape worth exploring, and Pegasus Bay gave us our first chance to try a bottle from North Canterbury, New Zealand.
For those who like petrol, this one had loads of it at five years of age.
Flavorful Riesling with Petrol at Five Years
This New Zealand Riesling was medium gold in color with medium(+) aromas of yellow apple, petro, honey, pear, wet stone, beeswax, grapefruit, and pineapple.
On the palate, it was off-dry with medium(+) acidity, medium alcohol, full body, pronounced flavor intensity, and a long finish. We had notes a lot like the nose, with yellow apple, pear, grapefruit, pineapple, beeswax, petrol, peach skin, quince, and orange marmalade being prominent.
This one was petrol overload and if you've ever wanted to experience this characteristic in a fine Riesling, an aged Pegasus Bay from North Canterbury is sure to do the trick. We were blown away at how much petrol this one was showing at just five years old!
Riesling Food Pairing – Korean Bibimbap
We paired this off-dry Riesling with spicy Korean bibimbap as we thought the slight residual sugar in the wine would work with the spiciness of the dish quite well- and it did. While the flavors mostly held here, we did note a slight increase in perceived tropical notes in the wine that was pleasant; however, the peach skin and petrol notes were still prominent even with a meal.
Score: 4.5 / 5
We'd buy several bottles of this one.
This Riesling hit all the right notes for us, and we were quite surprised with the petrol intensity despite being, by most standards, young. As such, we'd love to have several bottles in our cellar of this one to see how it progresses with even more age!
Pegasus Bay is located at 263 Stockgrove Road, RD2, Amberley in Christchurch, NZ 7482. We received this bottle as part of our Picked by Wine.com subscription and enjoyed it in 2024.
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