Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a youthful, aromatic Riesling with notes of lime blossom, lavender, chalk dust, grapefruit and lemon peel. Bright acidity cuts through a talc-like texture. The citrus flavors are persistent to the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Intense and focused, with a laser beam of acidity keeping everything in focus. Features fresh lime, white grapefruit and lemon sherbet notes that are mouthwatering and clear, with a whiff of beeswax and accents of fresh-grated ginger and preserved citrus peel. Drink now. 100 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
2022 was an excellent follow on from the excellent 2021 vintage. This 2022 Killerman's Run Riesling is spritely, inchoate and so tightly coiled at this point that the acidity and the phenolics are seamlessly intertwined. Really great value here—pristine Riesling.
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.
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.