2023 Ninth Island Riesling $25
Bide your time. That was Dr Andrew Pirie's message for Tasmanian wine consumers 30 years ago when asked to comment about the 17 different vintages of Pipers Brook Vineyard Riesling he had poured for visiting wine judges James Halliday and Huon Hooke.
"Tasmania's cool-climate Rieslings need time in the bottle before they begin to show their best," he noted.
"There's a tendency for them to be very fine and delicate when they're first released, and they often express very little in their first year of life. But the cool ripening conditions which preserve the delicate perfumes and maintain the steely acidity on the finish help balance the sweeter fruitiness of the variety. We tend to get 13 to 20 years out of Rieslings from good years."
The industry pioneer is no longer at the helm of the company he founded in 1974. The glamour white has also lost the high profile it enjoyed in previous decades. In 2026, it accounted for barely four percent of the State's total wine grape crush.
But Riesling is a survivor. It still continues to impress in the cellar, too, just as Pirie noted all those years ago.
Ninth Island wines are supposed to play second fiddle to Pipers Brook's flagship wines, but this Riesling from 2023 doesn't appear to have read the score. Nor did the 2019 that won gold and the Trophy for Best 2019 Vintage Wine at the 2020 Tasmanian Wine Show.
(Let that sink in for a moment. The best of all the wines from 2019 exhibited at the event.)
Fruit for this 2023 is largely sourced from the company's Strathlynn Vineyard, planted on the West Tamar.
The delicate white flower aromas have largely given way to more of the variety's signature notes of lemon/lime citrus, but there's no sign of the distinctive, toasty, bottle-aged characters that come with advancing years. The palate, too, is similarly fresh and vibrant, with that steely acidity mentioned earlier playing a leading, concertmaster role.
The fruit is ripe and juicy, and works a treat at the meal table when poured alongside classic partners like fresh Tasmanian oysters, scale fish, pork and poultry.
Grab a bottle to share with the family on Father's Day. The current online and cellar door price is $25 for the 2024 vintage, but it seems there are still plenty of bottles of the 2023 sitting on retail shelves. Prices can vary but one well-known chain was recently selling their stocks much closer to the $20 mark. That's a bargain.
The wine drinks very well indeed after being opened for 24 hours. If you share a bottle on Father's Day and have a splash left over, dinner on Monday or Tuesday will definitely seem a little more special than usual.
Source: Retail purchase
Last page update: 27 August 2026