There is nothing quite like a magnum for sharing and this iconic 2014 ‘The Florita’ Riesling from Jim Barry is just the ticket.
This magnificent wine opens in the glass with delicate floral aromas of citrus blossom, rose water, lime citrus and hints of green pear. A wine of immense drive and purity. It shows the
hallmarks of a youthful but restrained Florita with a promise of more to come. Lime citrus is dominant with elements of pear and rose water with long lingering acidity.
A magnificent benchmark dry Riesling to be enjoyed now or with careful cellaring for the next ten years.
The Florita Story – It starts in 1946, just after the war, when Leo Buring bought land at Watervale and planted Pedro Ximénez for sherry – the preferred wine of Australians at the time. He named the vineyard Florita, which is Spanish for ‘little flower’ – a reference to the sherry flor (or flower), the film of yeast that covers the dry flor sherry as it matures in its ullaged casks.
Public tastes shifted, table wine became fashionable, and in 1962 Buring’s winemaker John Vickery began to remove PX and plant Riesling. “He started to make Riesling (wine), which began to be seen as the future of Australian white wine,” says Barry. Indeed, Vickery and the Leo Buring brand became almost synonymous with Riesling.
“In 1986 Philip Morris (the tobacco company which owned the Leo Buring brand at the time) had six years supply of Riesling in its cellars, and no-one was drinking it – Chardonnay was the new fashion. They decided to sell the Florita vineyard. My brothers and I went to the auction. I was 24. Mum said ‘You’re not allowed to buy it’. She said we already had plenty of vineyards. We told Dad he’d better buy it, and that would let us off the hook. Southcorp owned the Florita trademark at the time, and although the Barrys began using the grapes immediately, they couldn’t use the name.
“I had to wait eight years until the registration period was up, but then Southcorp renewed it for another 10 years, so I had to wait 18 years all told, and I registered the name Florita two days after it lapsed.
Eighteen years is a long time to wait for a drink.”