Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Jeffrey Grosset has been making wine from what he calls the “hard rock soils” of Polish Hill since 1981, and now farms 20 acres of riesling there, tended organically from the start. His 2017 takes the austerity typical of the wine from this site to a new level, filling the mouth with lithe flavors of white cherry and bone-dry lemon before their weight seems to evaporate, leaving all the aroma in its wake. It lasts, imprinting each breath with mineral salts, nori and lime blossom scents. An archetype of Clare riesling, Polish Hill needs to develop for ten years from the vintage before it starts to show itself completely.
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Wine Spectator
Impressive for the precision, with ruby grapefruit, Fuji apple, pear and green tea notes that are powerful and harmonious. Sleek acidity keeps everything fresh. Drink now.
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.