2023 Dicey Bannockburn Riesling, Central Otago

A lovely Bannockburn riesling with 21 g/L residual sugar that sways on the fulcrum of off-dry, courtesy of some tight, vivid Central Otago acidity. It's grapefruit-y, with some slurpy white peach and green apple for good measure along with white flowers, a wisp of struck flint, freshly sliced fennel and crushed stone. Lovely it is. In fact, the spittoon got little use tasting this. Sorry not sorry. Great drinking. Drink to 2030

93 points (Special Value) Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion, September 2024

Vibrant, pithy and layered nose with perfumed spice and honeyed, savoury complexity. The fruit expression is riper, in the warm citrus and stone-fruit spectrum. Lively and expressive on the medium-dry palate, the carefully balanced mid-weight flavours are long, linear and juicy with the sugar expertly balanced by a clever whiff of mineral reduction, tapered phenolics and delineating acidity. A decadent yet elegant riesling which manages to finish refreshingly off-dry. Drink to 2034.

93 points Stephen Wong for The Real Review, March 2024

Fresh flowers such as lilacs with lemon and light petrol undertones in the aromas, following through to a medium body and a medium-sweet, crisp and fruity finish. Drink now.

91 points James Suckling, March 2024

More about this wine

The 2023 season was one of warm and dry summer turning cool ahead of harvest, elongating the ripening phase with several weeks. This allowed all varieties to reach optimal maturity, and for picking decisions to be based on preferred flavour and style.

The fruit was foot stomped on arrival to the winery, stored overnight, and whole bunch pressed the following day and sent to stainless steel with full solids. The ferment started with indigenous yeasts and was allowed to cool naturally with approximately 21g/L residual sugar remaining. The wine was racked and left on light lees for a further six months before being bottled unfined with light filtering in October 2023.

About Dicey

This is family affair of brothers James and Matt Dicey, whose father Robin Dicey, originally from South Africa, moved to Central Otago in 1992 and was instrumental in establishing many of the region’s vineyards.

The brothers grow Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Syrah and Gamay across three Bannockburn vineyards totalling just over twenty hectares.