Jim Barry The Florita Riesling 2007

I've frequently quoted the old adage that if you open a can of worms, the only way you can re-can the worms is to use a larger can, but had no idea the same principle applies to wine fridges.

There's no doubt that the model lurking in the laundry is far too small for Hughesy's cellaring needs, but I suspect that regardless of capacity any model is going to be too small for my ambitions, so I try to make do with what's there.

Remodelling the kitchen meant the bar fridge needed to move to the laundry, which, in turn, meant the wine fridge needed to be repositioned to make room for the space invader, which in turn meant the thing needed to be emptied.

A simple enough exercise, you might think, but when I had refilled the little devil I found I had a number of bottles that didn't fit.

It's all in the actual arrangement, I guess, and obviously last time around I'd got it right. This time I'd reshuffled things, so, what to do? Empty it again and have another go? Or do a slight reshuffle and take out anything that seemed to be getting close to the Halliday drink-by date or rated below the low nineties in the same source?

It may come as no surprise to learn that I went for the latter option, and one of the obvious candidates for removal was this little number, rated at 89 with a drink by 2014 appended.

Now, it's not as if I'm inclined to view Halliday as the be-all and end-all, but it's good to have a pointer, and I'd rather be trying this one now rather than going for the '05 or '08 which James has going into the 2020s. It's not as if those single bottles are going to last that long, you understand, but they'd arguably have what it takes to go close to the distance.

Actually, talking of distance, here's an example of how far we've travelled in a few short years. Visiting the winery I'd written (in the ensuing travelogue):

a stellar wine made from free run juice (about 40% of the available volume) that was 100% Riesling without a trace of skin, stem or stalk. Quite simply, a fantastic wine.


Two and a half years later:

Jim Barry The Florita Riesling 2007 (4* $40) Maybe I've been getting into a few too many aged (or relatively aged) Rieslings lately, but while this bottle ticked all the appropriate boxes I was comparatively underwhelmed. Definitely developed Riesling, that whiff of hydrocarbon on the nose, pronounced Clare Valley minerality, full of flavour and a very pleasant drinking experience but lacked, I thought, the Wow! factor noted when we visited the winery.

Signs of a changing palate? Perhaps, but I'd put it down to a mixture of that, preconception and recent samples of very good Riesling with a few years bottle age on them. Definitely 4*, but, really, I was looking for something that was closer to 4.5, and had I been in a position to taste this now with a view to buying on this tasting I'd be giving it the flick pass.