In a word, the 2019 growing season was – dry! It started off dry and stayed that way. Mother nature challenged the vines with more frosts than usual and a windy flowering period that disturbed fruit set.
To top it all off she threw in a hailstorm on 22 November! Thankfully the punch-drunk vines were given a small reprieve with no extreme temperatures in the ripening period and were put out of their misery with an early, compressed harvest beginning with the whites on 7th March and finishing with Shiraz on 22nd March. The 2019 vintage resulted in our lowest yield on record, but outstanding quality wines across all varieties. Whenever you can find it, grab any 2019 wine from the Barossa/Eden Valley!
2018 Reserve Riesling tasting:
Each year we make a Reserve Riesling from the very best parcel of fruit out of one of four Riesling blocks. This year Block 7 shone through.
Pale straw with a citrus blossom nose and a beautifully balanced palate of lemon and minerality. A classy, seamless, linear Eden Valley Riesling from a low yielding but exceptional vintage.
Drink now, but it will cellar for ever!