St Hallett Eden Valley Riesling 2008
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Light and tangy, delivering a lively mouthful of quince and lemon flavors that linger impressively on the puckery, nicely flinty finish. Drink now through 2014.
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In the heart of the Barossa Valley, Australia's best known wine region, lies St Hallett, one of the country's premier wine producers. Established by the Lindner Family in 1944, for many years St Hallett's winemaking focus was, like many local wineries, on producing fortified wines. However, during the seventies and eighties, St Hallett turned to explore the true potential of the Barossa through premium table wines. This has resulted in St Hallett's status as one of Australia’s best producers.
St Hallett is renowned for crafting full-flavored, textured wines entirely from Barossa Valley fruit and is credited with producing benchmark wines of the region such as the iconic St Hallett Old Block Shiraz, made from vines aged up to 100 years old.
Winemaker and General Manager, Stuart Blackwell spearheaded the commissioning of the new winemaking facilities in 1988 and the installation of some of the world's most advanced fruit processing and handling equipment. Despite this modern approach, traditional winemaking techniques prevail at St Hallett as they are best suited to the winery's classic style.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Higher in elevation and topographically more dramatic than the Barossa Valley floor, Eden Valley abuts it to its south and east. While it is a bit of an extension of Barossa, Eden Valley is topographically different than the pastoral Barossa Valley, and is composed of rocky hills and eucalyptus groves.
Recognizing Eden Valley’s potential with Riesling in the 1960s and 70s, producers started to move their Riesling production from Barossa to these better sites where schist soils on hilltops would produce more steely, tart and age-worthy examples. A most famous site, planted by Colin Gramp, called Steingarten, today produces one of the most outstanding Australian Rieslings. Youthful Eden Valley Rieslings express floral, grapefruit and mineral, while with time in the bottle, they become increasingly toasty and complex.
Riesling isn’t the only grape the region can grow; undeniably at lower altitudes Shiraz does very well. Mount Edelstone is a notable vineyard as well as the Hill of Grace, which boasts healthy Shiraz vines well over 100 years old. This is the only Australian region where Merlot has a made a name for itself and Chardonnay can be spectacular, particularly from the High Eden subregion in the southern valley.