Winemaker Notes
This wine is pristine with aromas and flavors of lemon myrtle and tea tree blossom, with crushed quartz minerality it is evocative, seamless and ageless. The wine shows great tautness as a young wine that will delight early drinkers as well as those who want to put it in the cellar.
Enjoy with kingfish sashimi and lime jelly or vegetable spring rolls with Vietnamese herbs.
Vegan-Friendly
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
A cool, voluminous year. Pointed scents of bosc apple, lemon drop, mint, spiced quince and brown pear. As phenolic as it is fresh, this is reminiscent of a structured, gently mid-weighted Alsatian style, more savory and toothsome than the Australian norm. Quite excellent. Old vine vinosity breeds length and a latent forcefulness that never, mercifully, digresses from an elegant, juicy acid trail across the palate. Very fine Australian riesling. Drinkable now, but best from 2026.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Initially quite shy, after some aeration and warming in glass, this opens to a delicate nose of white florals, lemon balm and lime essence. The laser-focused palate is equally understated and elegant. Dry with a slight skinsy grip and mouthwatering acidity, it's balanced, food-friendly and refreshing now, but could cellar for at least another decade, or likely longer.
Cellar Selection -
Wine & Spirits
Completely closed off behind its youthful acidity, this wine’s fruit feels gun-metal grey, as if perceptible in texture only. Check on it the next day, and you might find hints of white roses and violet pastilles, the wine still super tart. Forget it in the cellar six to eight years.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 1961 Block Riesling hails from a broadly similar vintage to the 2021 that preceded it; that is to say, it was even, mild and long, with some variances in rainfall between the two years and a very unfortunate hail event late in October 2021, but otherwise, it was a very good vintage. It leads with lavender, a hint of calendula/chamomile, soap/toast and mashed green peppercorns. The wine is soft and pillowy and really quite savory. The acid feels softer and less terse than last year and, overall, the wine less strict. I quite liked that character. Regardless, it's a lovely wine and one that will please drinkers in the shorter term as well as over the medium-plus years. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
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.