BY GEORGE, HERE’S A COOL RIESLING FOOD IDEA

Wc06Jul09

david ellis

IF you enjoy white fish and a good white wine to go with it, you'll not do better than to pan-fry some South Australian King George Whiting fillets and serve them up with a nicely chilled Riesling – its one of the great food/wine matches of all-time.

And one quite excellent drop for just such a match-up is Wicks Estate's 2008 Riesling from the cooler Adelaide Hills: here's a wine whose lime and citrus blossom aromas, and lively fruit-intense palate of citrus and tropical fruit and fine minerality, goes superbly with whiting.

Simon and Tim Wicks, whose family long had horticultural interests in the foothills at Highbury, east-north-east of Adelaide, kick-started Wicks Estate in 1999 when they bought 54ha at Woodside, 10km north of Hahndorf.

It provided them with a range of soil types ideally suited for growing various varietals, including Riesling, and in 2004 they built a state-of-the-art winery, signed-up the highly-skilled and respected Tim Knappstein to make their wines for them… and as they say, the rest is now history.

Pay $18 for the 2008 Wicks Estate Riesling, and treat family or friends to this and those pan-fried King George Whiting fillets – for good measure, topped-off with a stir-fry of diced mushrooms, asparagus, garlic, chives and almonds.

ONE FOR LUNCH: A REWARDING red to savour with a hearty Winter's leg of lamb is Poole's Rock Firestick 2006 Hunter Valley McLaren Vale Shiraz, a wine sourced from these two premium grape-growing regions that whilst far-flung from each, in fact have much in common.

That commonality is long growing seasons, mild temperatures and fertile soils that allow the grapes to develop full and intense flavours; this wine's rich with spicy plum, blackberry and vanillin oak, ideal to go with that roast lamb… and even better still, it's remarkably well-priced at just $12.95 a bottle.

(NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out http://www.vintnews.com )


PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] AN all-time great food match: Riesling with King George Whiting fillets

[] AT $12.95 here's a bargain Shiraz with a Winter's roast leg of lamb