Clare Wine Co Riesling 2020
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Winemaker Notes
Clare Wine Co was established in 2008 by the owners of Kaesler Wines. Winemakers from Kaesler, Stephen Dew and Reid Bosward are responsible for producing the wines under the Clare Wine Co brand and their signature winemaking styles shine through. Fruit is picked and transported to Kaesler winery in the Barossa for vinification. Clare Wine Co’s focus is their Estate Grown Riesling which is a true expression of the vineyard and the famous Clare Valley.
The wines of Clare Wine Co. are all about regionality and pure flavors - the taste of Clare. With fruit from Watervale and Polish Hill River, there’s a sense of place to be found here. Polish Hill vineyard is 30 acres (12 ha) block with 10 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and 20 acres of Shiraz that was planted in 1999.
The vineyards were carefully selected due to their unique soil formations and the microclimates found in the respective vineyards. The vineyards are over 40 years old, in the blue-ribbon sub-regions of Watervale and Polish Hill River. Riesling excels in Watervale and the Shiraz and Cabernet from Polish Hill represent some of the finest fruit found in the region.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.