Passion Project: A variety loved very well by very few

Despite repeated campaigns by a passionate minority of winemakers, growers and enthusiasts, the variety remains a hard sell in the market and a tough conversation with industry, he says. It can't carry the same crop as Sauvignon Blanc in the vineyards "if you want to make something half decent", and has a lower district average price, he adds. "Er, so, no."

In his 18 years at Framingham Wines, from 2001 to 2019, Andrew shared his love of punk and of Riesling and of wine with "Framingham-ness" - rather than "Marlborough-ness" which he noted when a finalist for the 2019 Gourmet Wine Traveller New Zealand Winemaker of the Year. "He's a highly intelligent, deeply thoughtful winemaker who does it his way and does it well," Bob Campbell MW said in a profile story at that time.

The Framingham Select Riesling 2011, 2016 and 2019 won the 2021 Marlborough Wine Show Marlborough Museum Legacy Award, recognised by Chief Judge Ben Glover as a special example of Marlborough Riesling. Three years earlier, Anne Krebiehl MW told readers of The Buyer that Framingham's world class Rieslings were precise, clear, pure and thrilling. The secret to those success stories is the same as for any wine he "knocks out", Andrew says from his home in the Marlborough Sounds. "Authenticity, balance and harmony all the way."

His own reason for Riesling began as a teenager in Britain, where the family occasionally had a bottle of German Riesling on the table with Sunday lunch, brought home from his father's work visits to Trier on the Mosel River, an old Roman city with centuries of wine culture. "He'd come back with explanations of styles etcetera, which I guess I found fascinating," Andrew recalls. Holidays in Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Italy further fuelled his fascination.

He continued to learn about wine while gaining a PhD in organic chemistry and working in research and development. Then in 1998, when a visit to a London wine fair presented an opportunity to work as a wine technician, Andrew and his wife Debra moved to Marlborough, bringing his passion for Riesling to a region obsessed with Sauvignon Blanc.

For winemakers, the success of Riesling depends on ambitions for the wine and how consistent they want the style to be, he says. "In my view, dry styles can be challenging to make - assuming you want something authentic and not over-manipulated. But the rewards are there if you're prepared to give it some thought, as consumers are more likely to accept dry styles."

Knowing the site is key, as is finding the style or styles that suit it best in the average vintage, "rather than forcing a style onto grapes that maybe just aren't that suitable for it", he says. "But of couse, economics and market considerations always raise their ugly heads," he adds, talking of Riesling "enthusiasts" who can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Then there's the "not-so-Riesling-enthusiastic", who want the right price and definitely does not want to think they're drinking something sweet, even if they are, he adds wryly. "It can be fun to ask people to guess how sweet the wine is when they ask; it soon becomes apparent that the numbers don't mean anything."

Consumers looking at a Marlborough Riesling likely expect a wine that is "juicy and fruity with some nice Meyer lemon and mandarin notes", Andrew says. "But Marlborough Riesling doesn't have to be like this. There are so many options in the vineyard and winery that can take that as an underlying core and add nuance, texture and complexity to the finished wine."

Because the variety remains a difficult sell, New Zealand Riesling can often be very good value for money, Andrew continues. "People don't want to make too much, and the product needs to be half decent to sell it, so there aren't that many poor New Zealand wines." But some have more ambition than others, he adds.

Andrew and Debra started importing wine into New Zealand in 2010, bored with what they could buy here from overseas. There were plenty of good wines, but too many were safe, with too few obscure varietals or from lesser-known regions, "which are more the spice of life for me", he says. For the first four or five years, they imported from a supplier in the United Kingdom while Andrew worked his day job at Framingham. "We'd also spent a bit of time travelling around the world attending Riesling celebrations, and as a result we got to know some of the producers we admired from afar, if you like, a bit more personally."

From 2014 they started to work directly with the likes of Clemens Busch, Philipp Wittmann and his wife Eva, and Will Bründlmayer. Debra was sick during this time, and passed away in 2016. Andrew realised he couldn't manage the imports and day job alone, "so I decided I'd just concentrate on building direct relationships with producers I admired and had got to know", he says. Eight years on, he's no longer with Framingham and the business, Oh So Pretty, is working with 11 producers and Germany, Austria and Italy.

On the international stage, the price of top Rieslings is increasing rapidy and there's not much appetite from retail for these wines to be on shelves, Andrew says. "I have noticed more willingness for the on-trade to take on entry level wines as a result too. In German terms most of the real value is at village level and the price of those, whilst not cheap, is relatively under control still," he says. Meanwhile, New Zealand's market remains "pretty parochial" on the whole. "So you're not going to make your fortune selling German Riesling. At least I'm not".

The Blind Tasting 2022 - Riesling

New Zealand Riesling is “a solid and at times exciting class,” says Emma Jenkins MW in her Varietal Summaries, produced after The Blind Tasting 2022. Her report remarked on New Zealand’s ability “to make high-quality, balanced styles across the regions and in an array of residual sugar and alcohol levels.” The panellists felt that the dry, medium and sweet categories of Riesling were strongest overall, whereas the off-dry category had a greater number of simpler wines that lacked overall focus and harmony. “That said, the top wines from all categories delivered lovely examples with wonderful fragrance and purity of aromatics, vibrant ripe citrus fruit, minerality and texture. Meticulous, confident winemaking produced great balance and allowed the fruit quality to shine while delivering more than just that.” All of the Rieslings in The Blind Tasting originated from the South Island, and most were from recent vintages. But it was “wonderful” to see one of the top scoring wines hailing from the 2013 vintage, Emma writes in her report. “Ably demonstrating the variety’s ability to develop complexity with age while retaining freshness and finesse.”

To read The Blind Tasting 2022 Varietal Summaries, go to: nzwine.com/members/marketing/education/blind-tasting/varietal-summaries