South facing, boney soils - ginger spice, mineral and soft textures

Scored 95 Points by James Suckling. Read the review.

Scored 93 Points by The Winefront (Mike Bennie). Read the review.

This wine is made from the original Riesling vineyard on the Koerner Family property, planted in 1973. It’s a unique 4 hectare block running north – south over a hill, with 89 short rows running east – west. This orientation helps protect the fruit from the intense Clare Valley sun. 

The section of vineyard we use for this wine is on the Southern slope, where a thin layer of clay loam overlays limestone. We particularly enjoy working with this section, as it best expresses the mineral characters we love in a Riesling.

To help build weight and texture, this wine is fermented and aged in 1000L ceramic amphora for around 9 months, it goes through full malolactic fermentation (MLF) and is then racked to steel where it sits on fine lees for a further 6 months. The wine was bottled at the end of April 2025 without fining or filtration and with 70pppm total sulphur dioxide added.

WINEMAKING NOTES

Vineyard:  Koerner Vineyard, Watervale. Block - Gullyview

Planted: 1973

Soil type: Terra Rossa, red clay on limestone

Picking date: 16 February, 2024

Picking method: Hand harvested and sorted in vineyard

Processing: Crush and destem

Time on skins: 6 hrs in press

Pressing: Free run only, minimal press rotations

Cooling / Settling: Cold settled off dirt and heavy solids for 3 days

Fermentation: Natural ferment in ceramic amphora 2 months

Aging vessel: Ceramic amphora for 6 months, then stainless steel on fine lees for 6 months

Filtration and Fining: no

Bottled: 01/05/2025

Alc / pH / TA / SO2: 12.6% / 3.04 /  6.6 / 35F, 65T

Production: 105 dozen