Tracing the history of riesling in Australia is no easy task. Until 1984, the name was widely used to denote a white wine style, particularly by the largest companies. The wine in question might have no true riesling in its make up. In the Hunter Valley the most common usage was a derivative of Hunter River Riesling, and before that Shepherd’s Riesling, Shepherd being a nursery man who supplied cuttings of what was in fact semillon. Lindeman’s continued the confusion by marketing Riesling, Chablis, White Burgundy or Hock, all made from semillon. In the Clare Valley crouchen (a disreputable variety prone to oxidation) was called Clare Valley Riesling. The panacea was to call all such wines Rhine Riesling, the cure as bad as the illness.
In 1984 Jeffrey Grosset led a sustained campaign of Clare Valley vignerons to use riesling for wine made entirely from the variety. It had already been largely successful by 2000, when negotiations with the EU for correct usage had been agreed in principle, the agreement finally signed in 2010. His other crusade was for the screwcap; and no other wine has benefited more from it than riesling.
Moreover, there have been tectonic shifts over the past 50+ years. Until chardonnay arrived in South Australia, riesling was its number one calling card. 1991 was the tipping point, the last year in which riesling (41 522 tonnes) bested chardonnay (38 767 tonnes). In 2022 riesling’s crush was 20 822 tonnes, that of chardonnay 358 007 tonnes.
In 1989 Barossa’s chardonnay realised $1590 per tonne, cabernet sauvignon $1220, shiraz $800, riesling $600 and grenache $335. In 2022 grenache topped all other red varieties at $1319, and riesling topped all white varieties with $1171 (and chardonnay $517). Its geographic spread now reaches all points of the compass. The three wines profiled this week come from cooler regions other, perhaps, than that of the High Eden.
Ask a wine professional what their favourite variety is, and most will choose riesling.
2021 Pooley Tasmania Riesling
There’s a barely detectable 3g/l of residual sugar in the wine, deliberately retained to balance the acidity, which provides the finely structured Granny Smith apple and lime juice flavours that unfold in waves through to the lingering finish and aftertaste. Drink now or in a decade or two.
95 points, drink to 2031, 12.8% alc, Screwcap, $42
2022 Ashton Hills Vineyard Estate Riesling
This Adelaide Hills wine comes from eight rows of riesling, enough to make 120 dozen, previous owner Stephen George couldn’t bring himself to remove it and plant more pinot noir. The voluminous blossom-filled bouquet precedes a vivid, dancing array of citrus, green apple, and glittering acidity on the long palate.
95 points, drink to 2042, 12% alc, Screwcap, $39.99
2022 West Cape Howe Porongurup Riesling
The wine has a floral/citrus blossom-filled bouquet, and a palate that is at once delicate and mouth coating. The resolution of the paradox is the purity of Porongurup’s fruit, its minerally acidity a driving force.
96 points, drink to 2032, 11.5% alc, Screwcap, $30
