Wildflower St Florence 2023: Riesling

REGION: Marrickville, NSW
SIZE: 750ml / ABV: 6.2%

Wildflower St Florence 2023: Riesling is a golden barrel aged ale wholly fermented by a diversity of yeasts and bacteria collected from native fowers in NSW refermented with white wine grapes. It is named for Topher and Bernadette’s first daughter. Saint Florence was a 7th century abbess from Cartagena, Spain.

In 2023, St Florence: Riesling was made by blending barrel aged golden mixed culture fermentation ale with 456kg of handpicked, whole bunch Riesling courtesy of Ravensworth. After a three month maceration and refermentation of fruit and beer, it was bottled and allowed to naturally carbonate and mature before release.

A super clean and light ale, full of brightness and ripe fruit notes from the Riesling as compared to Semillon which marries well with our Gold base accentuating it's stone fruit character above the citrus driven aspect as in Semillon. Very well balanced, exactly what we shoot for... it tastes effortless, however a lot of work went into making it like that. A drink for all tastes and ages.

It's difficult to overstate the impact of Wildflower since its inception only a few years ago in 2017. Hailing from Texas, Topher Boehm has an impressive resume - from Brasserie Thiriez to Jester King to his background in astrophysics - not to mention his unique house yeast. Cultivated from foraged wildflowers native to NSW, think wattle blossoms and banksia, blended with a Belgian saison strain, creating something truly individual which speaks of place. Topher even sprayed the entire brewery with inoculated wort when he moved in, just to make sure everything was literally covered in the house culture.