Winemaker Notes
This Riesling is from the vineyard of Chris & Darry Honey, sited at the northern end of Watervale’s famed strip of Terra Rossa soil. The vines are trellised on the upright VSP system providing excellent fruit exposure. The fruit was crushed, chilled and immediately pressed with all pressings separated. The free-run juice was cold settled to clarify then fermented cold in stainless steel tanks and prepared for bottling early.Slices of citrus and floral notes abound on the nose of the 2018 Scimitarcomplimenting a palate of lingering fresh lime and lemon flavors and finely balanced acid.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
An austere riesling, its flavors of quinine, grapefruit and sour lime not yet developed, this is focused on its soil-driven structure, and tastes like the skins of acidic grapes. If you open it now, decant it for cured meats; but better to cellar it.
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.