2023 Ravensworth Riesling, Canberra District

Bryan Martin spent years as a winemaker at Clonakilla alongside Tim Kirk before establishing Ravensworth in 2001 at Murrumbateman in the Canberra District. The operation is deliberately small, built around a straw-bale cellar housing an eclectic collection of vessels — amphora, ceramic eggs, concrete and large oak foudres — each chosen for what it brings to a particular wine rather than aesthetic reasons alone. His philosophy stops short of the natural wine camp but leans firmly in that direction: no chemicals, no additives, minimal intervention, and a deep trust in fruit, site and the microflora that have been doing this work for millennia.

This is Riesling made at an unhurried pace that most Australian producers wouldn't attempt or simply wouldn't consider. Estate grown Murrumbateman fruit was destemmed and pressed to three ceramic eggs for natural fermentation, then left on lees for 12 months before being stirred and racked to a large format Stockinger foudre — neutral, old oak with no flavour to give — for a further year. Two years in total before bottling in May 2025, unfiltered and bone dry.

This is a deliberate departure from conventional Australian Riesling — textured, saline and broad rather than racily acidic and linear. Lime, green apple and lemon myrtle on the nose with a waxy, lees-derived richness and a savoury, mineral edge. The palate has real weight and friskiness at once, finishing long with a crackling saline minerality that keeps pulling you back.

A wine for those happy to step outside the mainstream. The wine's texture and salinity make it one of the more versatile food whites you'll open this year. It’s a natural partner for anything from the sea: freshly shucked oysters, or a Japanese-style steamed clam broth with ginger and sake.

Drink now through 2033.