Winemaker Notes
This is the 33rd release of our most important wine. The “Trad” balways makes a terrific drink upon release, but 5 -7 years in the cellar will amply reward those who like their Rieslings with some bottle development.
Drink with any seafood or white meat (of course), but it does work admirably with gruyere cheese too.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 vintage in the Clare Valley was an excellent year for Riesling, so it's good to see this wine looking so spritely and lithe at six years of age. The 2017 Traditionale Dry Riesling is toasty on the nose, with lanolin, beeswax, cold buttered toast, star anise, saffron, white pepper and salted preserved lime zest. It’s a kaleidoscope of characters and a great example of why you should hang onto the Rieslings, even for just a little while; the complexity they pick up with a bit of bottle age really does complete the picture.
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Decanter
Lime and grapefruit aromas lead to a palate with refreshing lemon spritz and a hint of wet stones, followed by mouthwatering acidity, real vitality and intensity of flavor, and just a touch of sweetness on the finish. Drinking Window 2018 - 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.
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.