Our last 40 year old Riesling in captivity!

"A person with increasing knowledge and sensory education may derive infinite enjoyment from wine." 
- Ernest Hemingway

My connection to Knappstein wines started at a very early age when my father, a commercial airline pilot, retuned home with a case of Clare Valley Riesling, given to him by his co-pilot, Noel Knappstein.

My father, admired by his family for his success as an aviator, was from good farming stock. They were more a beer at the pub or a swig of port at the end of a hard day type people, so the arrival of bottled wine was a strong memory.

In the late 60's I met Tim Knappstein and his wife at a dinner party. While making polite conversation I mentioned the Riesling from his family winery.

Then around 2001 fate, life or destiny stepped in and Tim and I met again, both adrift in a sea of 'singleness' (that's the condensed version), we started dating.

In time we were sharing our lives on a more permanent bases and oh, surprise, ‘The Riesling’ appeared again. Tim produced three bottles of Riesling he had made in the late 60’s and early 70's ‘The last in captivity”, he claimed. The first was magnificent. We drank the most divine, golden nectar of aged Riesling you are ever likely to experience.

With great expectations the gathered throng watch as he pulled the cork of the second bottle, sniffed it and said, “buggered.” As was the third. "Well I will just have to find something more modern" he stated philosophically. Meanwhile I was having my first cathartic lesson in how to pour wine down the sink and the conversation turned to 'cork' - but that's another story.