Winemaker Notes
Palate: Crisp, fresh and dry, loaded with zesty lemon and grapefruit flavours wrapped around a spine of crunchy, mineral acidity.
Summary: Another lovely Pikes Riesling from what could turn out to be one of the great recent vintages – certainly the best since 2005. Makes a fantastic drink as a crisp, young white, but will take 7-10 years in the bottle for those who like bottle aged Riesling
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pikes- 2009 Traditionale Riesling is light straw-colored with an enticing nose of mineral, lemon-lime, citrus, and floral notes. Ripe, exceptionally concentrated, and vibrant on the palate, it has the acid structure to evolve for 4-5 years and should drink well through 2019.
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Wine Spectator
Light and distinctive for its effusive pear, lime and star fruit aromas and flavors, fitting together neatly on a classic dry frame. Drink now through 2019. 2,000 cases made.
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.