Winemaker Notes
Vegan and Vegetarian Friendly
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This 10-year-old museum release is still so fresh and complex, with wet stones and some lime marmalade, as well as chamomile. Rich palate with lime-marmalade flavors and a surge of fresh acidity. Kumquat peel and a late, toasty build to close.
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Wine Spectator
Up front and refreshing, offering a seamless mix of lime, pear and green apple flavors. This wine's details gain momentum on the finish, where smoke, lanolin, beeswax and chamomile accents add complexity and depth. Drink now through 2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Riesling The Contours is intensely scented of lemon curd, lime leaves, fresh hay and toasted almonds with hints of crushed stones, orange blossoms and coriander seed. The light-bodied, bone-dry palate has a wicked backbone of rasping acidity adding to the energy of the citrus and mineral flavors, finishing with wonderful length.
Rating: 92+
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.