Some things you remember no matter what

I was awake between Tuesday morning and Sunday Morning. I thought I would manage Sunday with our lunch guests, but was so tired when they arrived that as I poured a glass of fizzy water I fell asleep standing up, dropped and smashed the glass. Little remains in my memory of the few forkfuls of roast chicken I ate before retiring to bed, yet somehow my recollections of the wine I insisted we open are still vivid. It shines out as a beacon of loveliness and delight in a dark and difficult few days.

Riesling RS37 2008, Mac Forbes

This has a rather mineral nose; throbbingly impressive slate and stoniness to it. That fruit! Lawks, is it lovely. There is razor precision from the lime characters and and attractive, ‘home hither’ pleasure from its orange-aromas. It also has hints of a surprisingly pleasing cold tea character, some form of scented Chinese tea perhaps, which just adds to the complexity of this spell-binding, thrilling nose. This smells like the way forward with white wines, yeah! The palate has stunning harmony. All of that lovely fruit is in impeccable harmony with razor-sharp acidity and delicious sweetness. For all of its racy, nervy, intellectual excitement this is really tweaking my pleasure centres in terms of being fantastically easy to drink and enjoy. I admit there is a bit of sulphur hanging around this, a la young German Riesling, but I am not bothered by such things when the wine underneath is explosively brilliant. ‘Explosively brilliant’ is a quality comment I have no problem attaching to this wine.