The Kanta name is Sanskrit for “beautiful” and “desired”.  Kanta Riesling is born from a unique winemaking partnership where German tradition and precision meets the premium, cool climate fruit from the Adelaide Hills.  Behind Kanta is a combination of Egon Müller, renowned German Riesling producer, Michael Andrewartha, wine businessman in Adelaide Hills, and Ákos Forczek, wine distributor based in the UK.  Egon chose the Shaw + Smith vineyards in Adelaide Hills from which to obtain the Kanta grapes, basing his decision on the high altitude, superb quality fruit and the proximity of its winemaking and bottling facility to the vineyards.

Since 2005, Egon has been travelling to Australia each year to advise on picking and strict fruit selection of grapes which come from the Argyle Vineyard in Echunga, located at over 1300ft above sea level.  The wine is made at Shaw + Smith winery under the supervision of Egon and Michael.  The winemaking process has also remained the same since the first vintage in 2005, with fruit cold soaked for 8 hours, after which fermentation is allowed to commence naturally using the indigenous yeasts that occur in the vineyard. The wine was then held in tank on lees for over 6 months before being bottled. The wine is held back a further 12 months in the bottle or until it is ready to be released.

The wine expresses white florals at the onset with lemon and lime zest contributing to the aromatics, alongside some delicate yellow peach aromas. On the palate, the wine is dry and dominated by citrus and wet stones flavours. Some salinity contributes to the complexity. This is a very refined Riesling with a crisp acidity, nicely balanced by some weight on the palate.