Winemaker Notes
Pale straw with lime green hues. Lifted and fragrant aromas of citrus florals, frangipani, finger lime and kaffir lime leaf, with hints of bath salts and green peppercorn. Excellent flavor intensity showing concentrated citrus flavors of lime juice and Meyer lemon, supported by minerality and crispness for an incredibly long and dry finish.
Pair with crumbed King George Whiting with yoghurt tartare and herb salad.
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
Citrus and passionfruit blossom soar as you swirl the glass, and the palate achieves the seemingly impossible with the volume of turbo-charged fruit. It reaches every receptor in the mouth and there's no hint of added acidity, the balance and length faultless.
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James Suckling
This is a stylishly refined riesling with a delicately fragrant nose that offers peach and lemon, as well as wet-stone and flinty edges. This is pristine. The palate has such a smooth delivery of very intense lemon and white nectarine. Some gently pithy grapefruit builds into the long, sleek finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
A multitude of appealing aromas, from lavender and lime blossom to talcum powder ... lemon oil to orange essence introduce this racy, citrusy Riesling, from one of Aus’s most historic and famed producers. There’s flavor intensity and a slightly chalky mouthfeel. Still youthful, this has plenty of life left in it.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
More concentrated and taut than the Peggy's Hill bottling, Henschke's 2021 Julius Riesling is almost unfruity at first whiff, with scents limited to hints of crushed stone and chalk dust. Those slowly yield to notes of mixed citrus, including grapefruit, lemon and lime. It's medium-bodied on the palate and tightly focused, built around a narrow beam of acidity that drives through the long, lively finish. It can be enjoyed now—preferably with some fresh-shucked Coffin Bay oysters—or cellared up to a decade (and probably longer). Best After 2022
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Wine Spectator
Packs flavors of peach and nectarine and a note of marzipan, which are smooth and elegant on an airy frame, with a fresh thread of acidity and details of orange blossoms.
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.