Adelina Watervale Riesling 2022 (6 Bottles) Claire Valley

by Principal Wines

$172.00 GST Included

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

94 Points, WineFront

This year the Watervale is a blend of two vineyards: blocks G11 and G6 from the Gullyview vineyard (planted in 2001 on red loamy clay over limestone); and as of 2021 the Kloock vineyard (north of Watervale, with light brown loam over limestone) enters to story.

A bit of history… Fruit from Gullyview G6 went into the Rieslings John Vickery made for Richmond Grove in the 2000s. Vickery also sourced fruit from other blocks at Gullyview for some of the legendary Leo Buring Rieslings of the 1970s. So, we’re talking about quality Clare real estate here.

As for the wine, the fruit was destemmed and crushed before pressing, the free-run juice then settled, racked and fermented. Col halted the ferment with around 2.9 g/L residual sugar, meaning the wine is pretty much bone-dry, a balance that works a treat in 2021. This is only the second time the Watervale has been fermented fairly much to dryness (traditionally the wine has had 4-6 grams per litre of residual sugar). The last time Adelina’s Watervale was this dry was in 2010, which gives an insight to just how beautifully the ’21 harvest progressed.

With its aromas of orange and lime blossom, lemon sherbet and lime zest, this explodes from the glass. It’s ripe, racy and long, with perfectly integrated acidity. While it will undoubtedly age well, it’s already a joy to drink.

This hails from the Gully View vineyard of Watervale, which is on red loamy clay over limestone. This is the vineyard that historically supplied Leo Buring, once the maker of Australia’s greatest Rieslings. The fruit was de-stemmed and crushed before pressing, the free-run juice then settled, racked and fermented to dryness. Another dry vintage, with lower than average yields has produced a Riesling with intense flavour and terrific balance.
“Classic Watervale, with floral perfume, concentration of flavour and succulence, ripe lime, a powdery crushed stone texture, and a mouth-watering finish of excellent length.” 94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

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About Adelina

We are a small vineyard and winery in the Springfarm sub-region of Clare, set amongst one of the most historically relevant winery and vineyards in Australia.

We run our farm with organic principles. The plantings of well established Shiraz, Grenache and Pedro Ximenez, some dating back to the turn of the 20th century and recent plantings, of Shiraz, Mataro and Malbec are NASAA certified.

We also work with a very small group of grape growers in Clare and the Adelaide Hills whom grow fruit for our non-estate wines. The winery is rustic in a sense of mod-cons and mechanisation, where the most elaborate piece of equipment would be the coffee machine.

At present we’re focusing our efforts on the vineyard, unfortunately tastings are not available.

The equation is blissfully straightforward:

A cool and dry vintage
+     low yields
+     Adelina
=     wines with pristine fruit and beautiful natural acidity.

The upside is arguably the finest set of Adelina Rieslings to date, and a pair of wines naturally true to site. The downside: with yields even lower than in 2020, this year’s release will not last long. We know of Col McBryde’s love of tension, so it’s no surprise that his ‘21s are mouth-wateringly precise and classically structured. The vintage has also bestowed the kind of depth and purity of fruit that makes these wines so delicious straight out of the gates.

While it’s only about a fifteen-minute drive from Watervale to Polish Hill River, these two sub-regions produce distinctly different wines. As Col puts it, Watervale’s red loams produce wines with more up-front fruit, zest and lime; while Polish Hill River’s slate and limestone-rich soils result in wines that are leaner and more restrained.

Again, volumes are super-low this year so if you would like to secure a parcel of either wine, please let us know sooner rather than later!polish hill river riesling.

Principal Wines

We are wine lovers with no agenda, except to work with people who grow grapes, and to put their wines into the hands of people we respect.

We bring many years’ collective experience working in restaurants and winemaking to Principal Wine and think we have a pretty good idea of how a great glass of wine tastes.

Things change all the time in the world of wine, but our core values always remain the same - to work with people who make their wine in the vineyard, to have fine wine to sell to places we’d like to drink ourselves, and to provide excellent service.

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