Chris Shanahan: Wine review — Yalumba, Henschke, Petaluma, Mitchell, Grosset & Mount Horrocks

Yalumba South Australia Riesling 2007 $10-$12
Henschke

Eden Valley Julius Riesling 2007 $27
Green’s Hill Lenswood Riesling 2007
Peggy’s Hill Eden Valley Riesling 2007 $20

This week’s recommendations are all rieslings from the outstanding 2007 vintage, selected at a tasting a few weeks back. The Yalumba wine, a Barossa-Eden Valley blend, and value champ of the line up, offers plump, ripe, fresh varietal flavour at a bargain price. Henschke’s Julius, one of the big hitters, is intense, tight and in for the long haul. Peggy’s Hill, too, shows the Eden Valley’s restraint and taut structure but seems a little more approachable now than Julius. Green’s Hill, from Lenswood, a high, cool site in the Adelaide Hills, presents restrained but clear varietal flavours cut with bracing, fresh acidity. It should age well.

Petaluma Hanlin Hill Clare Riesling 2007 $25-$29
Mitchell Watervale Riesling 2007 $22
With the Bay of Fires Tasmania Riesling 2007 reviewed last week, Petaluma was a standout of the tasting – but the two are stylistic poles apart: the Tassie wine is delicately perfumed, ultra-fine and nothing like our mainland rieslings; the Petaluma is big and rich, but oh so fresh and delicate, too. It’s just about sold out I’m told and in limited supply thanks to the difficult 2006–07 growing season. Andrew and Jane Mitchell’s 2007 offer yet another style alternative, perhaps influenced by a spontaneous fermentation. There’s real flavour concentration, a rich texture and a little bite to the finish. It, too, was made in tiny quantities in 2007 – the forty-year-old vines yielding just 2.5 tonnes to the hectare.

Grosset

Polish Hill Riesling 2007 $42
Springvale Vineyard Watervale Riesling $35

Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling 2007 $28

These three sat towards the top of the tasting in a cluster with Bay of Fires, Petaluma and Henschke Julius. While the two Grosset wines share a wonderful purity, delicacy, fine-ness and unique, smooth silky texture, a lime-and-green apple tang gives the Polish Hill (a cool sub-region of Clare) a please-cellar-me, slightly austere edge. The softer Watervale offers delicious, lime-like varietal aroma and flavour. Like the Petaluma and Bay of Fires, these were hard to stop sipping after the tasting. Stephanie Toole’s Mount Horrocks 2007 grew in interest with every sip, delivering pure, lime-like varietal flavour. It’s intense but subtle, elegant and restrained.