Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The Grosset Rieslings rock and underscore a realization that this grape deserves attention from the wine world. Not just from Germany or France, but from the magnificent Clare Valley of Australia. The 2014 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling hits all of the high notes. Perfectly suited with shellfish! Light straw color; amazing aromas of zesty green apple and mineral; medium bodied, lively with good textures, yet still angular in many ways on the palate; dry, fine acidity, well balanced; super fine green apple and slate flavors; long finish, crisp rewarding aftertaste. (Tasted: September 22, 2015, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Riesling Polish Hill presents a very attractive nose filled with citrus and floral aromas set off by notes of herbs, fennel, coriander seed and a touch of wet pebbles. Light-bodied and dry, the palate reveals intense flavors enlivened by seamless acidity and a long finish with a mineral note.
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Wine & Spirits
Jeffrey Grosset helped make Clare Valley Rieslig world-famous with this bottling from a high-elevation site (1,500 feet), where silt and shale soils over clay and gravel challenge the vines to prodcue small, concentrated berries and tiny bunches. His other vineyards produce 2.5 bottles per vine; Polis Hill produces two bottles ber vine. That compression translates into a wine that lives for years, one that shows littel of itself in its youth. The 2014 vintage is more forthcoming than some, with a cool entry in which is it is possible to feel the layers of flavor, if not to taste them. It lasts on a mouthwatering lime and mineral savor, as if the sun is about the come out from behind the clouds, then snaps back into hiding.
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Wine Spectator
Lean, lithe, sleek and focused, with lively acidity playing against apple, clove, sassafras and floral flavors, dancing lightly through the long finish. Drink now through 2024.
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.