Burn Cottage is best known for its Pinot Noir, but this Riesling Grüner Veltliner blend is one of Central Otago’s quiet success stories. The fruit is sourced from the Sauvage Vineyard in Bannockburn, which was planted in 2005. The site’s schist soils and cool climate allow both varieties to retain definition and drive while achieving full phenolic ripeness. Winemaking is a low-intervention process: the grapes are pressed and fermented with indigenous yeast in stainless steel and seasoned oak. The result is a layered, textural wine that balances Riesling’s precision with Grüner’s flesh and spice. Expect notes of citrus peel, white flowers, and stone fruit on the nose, with a palate that carries through those characters, complemented by mineral depth and a clean, dry finish. This is a wine that evolves well over several years and pairs equally well with food or as an aperitif. A small-production release that quietly broadens the picture of what Central Otago can do beyond Pinot Noir.

With its fresh, intense lemon tonic, pear, apple, oyster shell aromas, superb lemon curd richness, persistence and minerality, Crawford River Riesling reflects the modern idiom of the Riesling style. The dry-grown vines, first planted in 1975 by John Thomson, are deeply anchored in gravelly friable basalt loams over clays and an ancient limestone seabed. Second generation winemaker Belinda Thomson, with her father John Thomson, continues the philosophy of minimal intervention and movement during vinification. The cold-settled juice is batch fermented around 12° - 15° C and left on lees for around six weeks before bottling in September.

Named of the sundial erected in the vineyard in 1842, Wehlener Sonnenuhr is the most famous vineyard in the Mosel. Extremely steep with optimal south-south west exposure, it yields fragrantly floral wines with ripe stone fruit aromas, underlying slately minerality and wonderful depth of flavour and structure. The Spatlese wines are very reticent in youth, blossoming between two and four years of age to display vibrant green apple, and white stone-fruit notes supported by a backbone of racy acidity.

WEINGUT BRUNDLMAYER Kamptaler Terrassen Riesling, Kamptal

Felton Road is the premier Central Otago producer with a strong reputation for terroir driven wines that have been allowed to find their own style rather than be 'crafted'. This Riesling shows n intense nose of stonefruit and citrus which leads into a rich and full palate with a strong mineral backbone. The finish is bright, with crunchy green apple acidity.

Taking its name from the Capuchin friars who arrived in 1619, the Clos is protected from winds by the surrounding hills and by the walls enclosing it. The soils here consist of sand, alluvial pebbles and granitic gravel and this produces a Riesling as zippy, zesty and mineral-driven as it is fleshy. White peach, green and yellow citrus along with melon, kaffir lime and lemongrass notes. Lovely texture and a vibrant, fresh finish.