Dry Riesling, YAY!

Ok that’s not the most exciting lead. Let’s pump it up with TRIPLE 95 points! And top those with a lone 96 for good measure.

Better.

Now drop the price under $30. Are your salivary glands juicing yet?

They should be. And your pursestrings should be loosening considering it’s “criminally inexpensive” as the 96-point Winepilot review describes it. Suckling lauded it as “a breathtakingly joyful wine!”. And we

In a vintage highlight by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate titled “Riesling Brilliance in 2022” they say “There are some producers in this report who stood out for their balance of fruit power, acid drive, poise and definition. In the Eden, the most impressive example of this were the wines from Pewsey Vale. It is a classic, long-standing producer, made by Yalumba’s Louisa Rose. These wines straddle that all-too-difficult balance of deliciousness and long-term aging capacity.”

The local paper The West Australian has the history behind this jewel that’s “a part of Australian folklore and hails from a vineyard first planted in 1847. Equally, this vineyard and the Australian wine industry share a story of unlikely success against an established, famously snooty Euro-centric culture. The vineyard is Pewsey Vale in the Eden Valley. Glowing reviews in the 1864 London Medical Times and 1867 Paris Exhibition attest to the early strikes against the old guard. Unfortunately, following its early successes the vineyard fell into disrepair as the market for table wines was small. Happily, in 1961 it was replanted and ultimately bought by the Hill-Smith family of Yalumba fame.”

Superb winemaking, impeccable low-yielding old vines from a perfect, isolate block in the vineyard, and a cool climate up at over 1,000 feet perched above the Pacific have come together for an electrifyingly fresh, complex as they come white.

If you have a condition known as “Pica” you’ll love this as it might be an alternative to chewing on actual rocks. And if you don’t, have Pica, you’ll still love it simply because it’s loaded with crazy amounts of minerality, fruit, and acidity. You get lime zest, just-ripe lychee, candied ginger, lanolin and crunchy stones all reinforced with bracing acidity. This will keep for decades and at this price you can sample one each year for about as long as you live…

Or not. Because there’s far less of this than our typical offers. If you’re reading this early, congratulations, you still have a shot…probably.

Get what you can get! And don’t get upset (as we tell our 5yo son sometimes) if you miss it.

96 Points – Winepilot “From the vines in their single site Eden Valley vineyard which were planted back in 1961 (the oldest remaining vines in the block), the wine sees a wild ferment but then spends a few months on lees, to add to the complexity and texture. A superb vintage, this is thrilling stuff. Pale yellow, the aromas weave through citrus, florals and minerals. This is tight, taut, coiled and powerful with excellent intensity with flavours of lime blossom and orange rind showing concentration and excellent length. Balanced, but a powerful style of Riesling and yet it retains a degree of elegance. This has fifteen to twenty years ahead if it, if you have the patience, all of which makes this criminally inexpensive.”

95 Points – James Halliday “With vines planted between 1961 and 2010 at close to 500m elevation in the Eden Valley, Pewsey Vale is a pretty special place. It always seems to be a site that can coax the very best out of the riesling grape. Pristine characters of freshly squeezed lime and lemon fruits with a blast of crunchy green apple and hints of crushed quartz, Christmas lily and lighter wafts of marzipan and petrichor. Detailed and precise, the fruit rides on rails of minerally acidity, setting a cracking pace across the palate before finishing pure and true. Great stuff.”

95 Points – James Suckling “A cool, voluminous year. Pointed scents of bosc apple, lemon drop, mint, spiced quince and brown pear. As phenolic as it is fresh, this is reminiscent of a structured, gently mid-weighted Alsatian style, more savory and toothsome than the Australian norm. Quite excellent. Old vine vinosity breeds length and a latent forcefulness that never, mercifully, digresses from an elegant, juicy acid trail across the palate. Very fine Australian Riesling.”

95 Points – The Wine Front “Soured from the original, contour-planted 1961 Block on the Pewsey Vale Vineyard, there is this immense wall of dry limey power that seems limitless. A wine like this is playing to my bias for steely dry whites, but it’s impossible to deny the wave surge of minerally citrus fruit that still looks like it was picked just a few months ago.”