Chris Shanahan reviews: Pewsey Vale Riesling 2015 is wine of the week
Pewsey Vale Riesling 2015
Pewsey Vale vineyard, Eden Valley, South Australia
$16.15-$25
★★★★☆
Points: 94
For a lot of wine at a modest price, try this mouth-watering riesling, made by Louisa Rose using fruit from the Pewsey Vale vineyard. The 50-hectare vineyard belonging to the Hill-Smith family, lies around 500 metres above sea level in the Eden Valley, a short drive uphill from the family's Yalumba winery. In 2015, the wine's seductive floral and lime-like aromas lead to a gorgeously fresh, fruity, delicate, dry palate. Rose says she fermented some components "with the natural yeast from the vineyard", perhaps explaining the wine's mouth-filling, smooth texture.
Pewsey Vale "The Contours" Riesling 2010
Pewsey Vale vineyard, Eden Valley, South Australia
$24.70-$34
★★★★½
Points: 96
Louise Rose makes this companion to today's wine of the week from old vines growing on the coolest slope of the Pewsey Vale vineyard. It gives drinkers a rare opportunity to enjoy perfectly cellared riesling, five years into its potentially very long journey. This is powerful riesling, revealing an intense lemon-like side of the variety, both in flavour and zingy, piquant acidity. The bone-dry palate literally explodes with flavour, including the first honeyed notes of age, while retaining true varietal delicacy.
Mount Avoca Moates Lane Shiraz 2012
Pyrenees, Victoria
$10.20-$12
★★★½
Points: 88
Mount Avoca Moates Lane Shiraz combines estate-grown fruit and material from other vineyards in the Pyrenees district. It offers ripe, plummy aromas with an underlying peppery character, indicative of cool-climate shiraz. The medium bodied palate reflects the aroma and leaves a pleasant peppery aftertaste. Cabernet sauvignon, comprising 15 per cent of the blend, makes its presence felt in the wine's firm tannic backbone. This is a really good, characterful red at the price.
Holm Oak Arneis 2015
Holm Oak vineyard, Tamar Valley, Tasmania
$25
★★★★☆
Points: 92
The Piedmont white variety, arneis, now grows in several Australian regions, including at Holm Oak vineyard, Tasmania. From Rebecca and Tim Duffy's cool site, the variety makes a startlingly racy, zippy dry white. Tart, lemony acid cuts through melon-like flavours and drives the wine's lingering, bone-dry finish. Few wines have the acidity to match oysters as this one would. And if you serve it with grilled fish, you won't need lemon juice. Too often the so-called "alternative" white varieties tend to blandness. Not this one.
Koonowla Shiraz 2013
Koonowla vineyard, Auburn, Clare Valley, South Australia
$20-$22
★★★½
Points: 88
The deep colour, ripe flavour and solid tannins testify to Koonowla's miserly shiraz yields in the 2013 vintage – just three tonnes to the hectare. You can almost taste the tiny thick-skinned berries in the finished wine. Ripe blackcurrant-like flavours combine with assertive, rustic tannins in a burly red made squarely in the ripe, full, hot-climate style.
Longview Riserva Nebbiolo 2012
Longview vineyard, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
$45
★★★★
Points: 92
The Saturno family grows several clones of Piedmont's nebbiolo vine high up in the Adelaide Hill. They say they hand-picked this fruit and selected individual berries – an attention to detail behind the quality of this wine. It's pale to medium in colour, typical of nebbiolo, and appeals with its floral and fruity aroma. The medium-bodied palate delivers far more flavour and intensity than the light colour suggests. It combines delicious fruit with the variety's firm, savoury tannins. It's a subtle, satisfying wine capturing the essence of this great red variety.