Leeuwin Estate 2003 Art Series Riesling

Well, here's one that underlines the need for accurate records and careful monitoring of stock.

There are excuses, but, really, leaving two bottles of a fondly-remembered favourite to the point where they're starting to slide is, to all intents and purposes, unforgiveable.

I can start by blaming the cork closure, and the care I took to ensure that anything in the bar fridge that boasts one lies on its side.

The shelving in the bar fridge is such that the best way to maximise capacity is by piling everything that's lying horizontal atop a single shelf, which in turn means there are eight or nine bottles lying in a configuration that makes the bottom layer difficult to extract without a complete remove/restack operation.

And while I've been fairly meticulous in keeping track of what I've bought since that $50 box of Tahbilk Everyday Drinking 2004 Sauvignon Blanc back in late March 2007 there's nothing on a spreadsheet that runs down to Row 543 and reveals a long term average per bottle of $11.18 that refers to Leeuwin Estate 2003 Art Series Riesling.

There are a couple of entries for 6 Assorted bottles from Magees from around Christmas 2007 that could be right, but, really, after close to four years there's no way of knowing.

What I do know is there were three cork closed bottles on the bottom of the pile, and at least one of them was a Rockford Eden Valley Riesling that had managed to avoid an entry in the Bento database and would probably have gone rather nicely with last night's Thai curry.

Restacking that section so I could get at the Rockford produced two bottles of 2003 Art Series, and a quick check with Mr Halliday revealed a Drink by 2009, so there was a fairly hasty redrawing of the evening's drinking arrangements. There are leftovers from last night to be consumed this evening, so we'll be waving a not quite teary goodbye to its brother tonight.

Leeuwin Estate 2003 Art Series Riesling (4* $n/a) It might have started out light, delicate and fresh with passionfruit aromas but from the first whilff it was fairly clear that we've caught this one just in time. There was a fair dose of the aged Riesling kero notes on the nose and across the palate, but they were almost muted, as if someone had taken a plane to anything resembling a rough edge. Interesting as an exercise in drinking a Riesling that's reaching the end of its development, but not, once the other bottle's gone, one that I'm keen to repeat.