Review by wine commentator & InDaily columnist ,
Philip White, published online 30 April 2013

Evandale Estate Eden Valley
Riesling Traminer 2012

90 points!!

THIRTY years ago the most popular white wine in Sydney was a concoction called Traminer Riesling which was a sweet vague forgettable commonly made from Frontignac and Semillon. It bore little resemblance to either Gewurztraminer or Riesling, the great white grapes of Germany and Alsace, from whence the idea came. In case you do remember that Sydney stuff, try to forget it before you dive in here.
This wine is true to label, after the ancient Alsace blend. It was made at Evandale near Keyneton, in the winery Henry Evans, George Fife Angas's son-in-law, built in the 1850s. Evans, a manufacturing chemist from Exeter in the Old Country, made very good wines there, using forerunning technology and considerable nous. But when he died in 1868, his wife, the prohibitionist Sarah, turned the winery and vineyard into a dried fruit manufactory, and grafted the wine vines to table varieties.
Henry and Sarah's direct descendent, Bill Evans, has spent decades gradually rebuilding the wine business, and now with the help of Jo Irvine, produces small volumes of a white whose style harks back to those early days and the original Riesling and Gewurztraminer his great-great grandfather made to great acclaim.
The cuttings Bill used to replant his vineyard came from Henry's original pre-phylloxera vines. The wine does not have the staunch acid structure of other modern Eden Valley Rieslings, but is a more immediately approachable drink with a certain rustic venerability about it. Rather than being austere and lemony, it's peachy, a little like an uncommonly good Chardonnay without oak. But the Riesling's limey nature gives it difference, offering a smooth, comforting palate with just the right tweak of acidity. Unusually, it's the perfect accompaniment to simple egg dishes, like, say, the radish or oyster omelettes you'll find in Park Lok or Wah Hing in Chinatown (bung on the chilli oil). Otherwise, I'm dying to try it with softer veal dishes, like an Amalfi-style saltimbocca.
If you buy a three-pack, with the 2011 and 2010 releases, the price goes down.

[Transcribed from Independent Daily - online newspaper - www.indaily.com.au - Tuesday 30 April 2013]