2023 Grosset, Polish Hill Riesling, Clare Valley, Australia
Critics reviews
From Grosset’s eight-hectare vineyard in the Polish Hill subregion of Clare, planted in 1996 on a ‘gently sloping site comprised of silt and shallow shales over a thin crust of clay and gravel, overlaying a bed of blue slate’. Lower-yielding, smaller bunches than the Riesling on Springvale vineyard in Watervale.
As is so often the case with this wine, it’s much more restrained, shy and delicately aromatic compared with Grosset’s other single-vineyard Riesling, the Springvale. It’s also more coiled and tighter and focused on the palate, but the precision and the tingling acidity, the sense of future potential, are simply scintillating. Will be fascinating to see how this ages in bottle – very well indeed, I think.
Drink 2023 - 2043
Max Allen, JancisRobinson.com (August 2023)
The 2023 Polish Hill Riesling is utterly superb. It has the flesh and body that only the Clare can deliver; it is shaped by coiled acidity, and it ripples through the finish with unfettered fruit power. It's a glorious thing, this wine. It's looking precise, focused and floral through the lens of the 2023 season. 12.9% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
Drink 2023 - 2043
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate (November 2023)
Subdued aromas of talc, chalk, orchard fruits, tatami straw, finger lime and fresh lemonade. Dry and tightly furled to a point that verges on severity. There is bountiful extract that pummels the cheeks and stains the palate, suggestive of a bright future despite the unyielding youthfulness now. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
Ned Goodwin MW, Senior Editor at James Suckling.com (September 2023)
About this WINE
Grosset
Jeffrey Grosset, an oenology graduate, gained extensive experience with major Australian wine companies like Lindemans before establishing his winery 21 years ago in Auburn, Clare Valley.
The winery is housed in a charming old butter and ice factory. Currently, 65% of grape intake comes from vineyards owned or managed by Grosset Wines. These vineyards are known for their advanced vine canopy management and minimal chemical use for pest and disease control. The remaining grapes are thoughtfully sourced from growers who share Grosset’s commitment to quality.
Riesling is the Clare Valley’s signature varietal, and Grosset produces two distinct styles. The Watervale Riesling grows in reddish clay loam over limestone, delivering a floral and lifted profile. Polish Hill Riesling, located in the east, features more acidic quartzy soils with loamy clay over shale and slate. These wines are handcrafted, understated, and designed for ageing.In 1998, Jeffrey Grosset was honoured with the title 'Riesling Winemaker of the Year' in Hamburg, Germany, reflecting his exceptional work with the Riesling grape. His Polish Hill Riesling holds an outstanding rating in Langton’s classification, alongside iconic wines like Penfolds Grange and Clarendon Hills Astralis.
Clare Valley
If ever there was a list of Australian terroirs, Clare Valley would be near the top. Its geographical position an hour north of Adelaide, its latitude and heat degree days (over the growing season) suggest a very hot clime suited to reds. Yet white wines prevail as these factors are offset by an average altitude of 398m (versus Geisenheim at 100m), low relative humidity (37 percent versus 56 percent), high sunshine hours, significant continentality levels (albeit less Geisenheim), cooling south-westerly sea breezes and prime, low, fertile red loam over marly limestone and shale soils set in cooling hill pockets. Irrigation is strictly controlled and less called for in the dry climate.
Taut lime-sherbet Rieslings with fine minerality and ageing capacity are the region's most famous product, followed by Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The town of Clare, founded by Irishman Edward Gleeson in 1840, first prospered on the back of copper mining, then a wheat and wine boom during the late 1800s. Vines were first planted in 1853 by an itinerant Cornishman at a site near present-day Watervale, and Birks Wendouree was founded before the century was over. The corporates moved in during the 1960s dry-wine boom, although there remains a core group of small, family-owned estates.
Recommended Producers: Grosset and Jim Barry Wines are among the leading exponents of the Clare Valley style.
Riesling
Riesling's twin peaks are its intense perfume and its piercing crisp acidity which it manages to retain even at high ripeness levels.
In Germany, Riesling constitutes around 20% of total plantings, yet it is responsible for all its greatest wines. It is planted widely on well-drained, south-facing slate-rich slopes, with the greatest wines coming from the best slopes in the best villages. It produces delicate, racy, nervy and stylish wines that cover a wide spectrum of flavours from steely and bone dry with beautifully scented fruits of apples,apricots, and sometimes peaches, through to the exotically sweet flavours of the great sweet wines.
It is also an important variety in Alsace where it produces slightly earthier, weightier and fuller wines than in Germany. The dry Rieslings can be austere and steely with hints of honey while the Vendages Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles are some of the greatest sweet wines in the world.
It is thanks to the New World that Riesling is enjoying a marked renaissance. In Australia the grape has developed a formidable reputation, delivering lime-sherbet fireworks amid the continental climate of Clare Valley an hour's drive north of Adelaide, while Barossa's Eden Valley is cooler still, producing restrained stony lime examples from the elevated granitic landscape; Tasmania is fast becoming their third Riesling mine, combining cool temperatures with high UV levels to deliver stunning prototypes.
New Zealand shares a similar climate, with Riesling and Pinot Gris neck to neck in their bid to be the next big thing after Sauvignon Blanc; perfectly suited is the South Island's Central Otago, with its granitic soils and continental climate, and the pebbly Brightwater area near Nelson. While Australia's Rieslings tend to be full-bodied & dry, the Kiwis are more inclined to be lighter bodied, more ethereal and sometimes off-dry; Alsace plays Mosel if you like.
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Description
This wine is always a joy to taste. The nose is bursting with apple blossom and honeysuckle. The 2023 has an incredibly lean backbone of acidity running through which is well balanced by the weight of fruits on the palate, where crisp apples and pears meet juicy stone fruits and there is a nice texture coming through on the finish along with a touch of bitter citrus pith.
Drink 2023 - 2048
Amy Johnson, Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd (October 2023)
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