Here's a flavoursome Riesling, full of lemons and limes and honey, just the thing to make you feel good when you're suffering from those winter ills. I should know for I succumbed to one dipsy of a cold this past week.

I'd tasted this Opihi Riesling 1999 a few days before, when my senses were still in tact and I loved delicate aromas and the richness and flavour in this zingy dry white wine. In my usual manner I recorked the bottle to retaste the wine over the next few days to see how it would progress. Then my cold came along.

A number of wines that had been earlier opened were tasted in this 'cold' experiment. The Riesling won hands down. Where some of the other wines were tasteless, the intensity, richness and tangy flavours of the riesling cut through the head cold to perk me up out of my misery. Forget the lemon and honey drinks. Have an Opihi Riesling instead!

The Opihi Vineyard in South Canterbury is very much on its own, viticulturally speaking, in this area that is probably better known to fly fishermen. It's inland from Timaru, and halfway along the road from Pleasant Point to the Geraldine-Fairlie highway.

Farmers Colin and Brenda Lyon, who have farmed their property for 35 years, growing cereals and small seeds, and finishing sheep and cattle, decided to plant 1.8 hectares of vines on the hill in front of their house. This was in 1991. It was a planting of an experimental nature, with 1/5th each of Muller Thurgau, Merlot, Riesling, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. The following year another 1.8 hectares was planted with Pinot Gris. This proved to be the right decision, for the wine from the first harvest, the 1998 Opihi Pinot Gris, won a gold medal at the Liquorland Royal Easter Wine Show the following year.

The Riesling looks destined to follow in those footsteps.

The Opihi Riesling 1999 was made at the combined Sandihurst/Sherwood winery at West Melton by winemaker Andrew Meggett. The Lyon's keep the yields to under two ton per acre and this, along with the long slow ripening they experience, has produced a very fruit driven wine. It costs just NZ$16 ex-vineyard.

There is a restored 1882 limestone cottage on the Lyon's property, which serves as a wine tasting, retail area and café. Last year a further 2 hectares of Pinot Noir was planted beside the cottage. For further information, check out this web page.