Winemaker Notes
Enjoy on its own, or with fresh oysters, seared scallops, Thai beef salad or salt and pepper squid.
Vegan and Vegetarian Friendly
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Final blend unbottled and unfiltered, this has plenty of fragrant lime and stone fruit aromas on the nose. There's a supple, even and succulent palate; good flesh, spicy, even and balanced.
Range: 92-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Riesling opens with notes of chalk dust and wet pebbles over a core of lime juice, yuzu zest and lemongrass. Light-bodied and bone dry with a racy line of acidity cutting through the intense citrus and mineral flavors, it finishes with great freshness and length.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine's aromas of lime sherbet and flower shop greens is textbook Eden Valley Riesling. This is a tight, cellar worthy wine, floral and citrusy on nose and palate, with medium body and a persistent finish. Drink now–2025.
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.