2019 Pewsey Vale, Dry Riesling, Individual Vineyard Estate, Eden Valley, South Australia.
These Aussie Dry Rieslings are such quality values, especially this Pewsey Vale, with intense dry extract, delicate florals and zingy acidity these wines really are refreshing and awesome with a wide range of cuisine and dishes. Australia has some of the oldest Riesling vines on earth, with only a few sites in the Mosel with older parcels, and Pewsey has more than 120 years of experience and history with this grape, having planted their first vineyard back in 1847 here in the high elevation Eden Valley, high above the famous Barossa region, where there is plenty of cool air to refresh the ripening grapes. This winery saw, as they put it, a reinvigorated Pewsey Vale Vineyard in the 1960s to bring their historic vines to glory and putting a sharp focus on the beauty and diversity of Riesling in this unique terroir. This 2019 vintage of Pewsey Vale’s Individual Vineyard Estate Dry Riesling is wonderfully expressive and vibrant with a light and zesty palate that shows a classic steely array of flavors with lime, green apple, orange blossom, fresh picked tart peach, bitter melon, verbena, a touch of saline and wet stones. This Riesling is crisply dry and brisk, too much so for overtly hot spicy dishes, but fabulous with oysters, claims, garlic shrimp and or goat cheeses.
Pewsey Vale does four main Riesling offerings, all hand crafted by the talented winemaker Louisa Rose, who’s collection is a fantastic lineup that includes her Kabinett style Pewsey Vale Prima Riesling, the Contours Museum Reserve (extended aged), the 1961 Block Riesling, which is dry, but concentrated, and this ultra bargain Single (Individual) Vineyard Estate Dry Riesling, a wine that is one of my (less) guilty pleasures and a cool Summer refresher. Pewsey Vale offers up tasty suggestion of their own to go with this wine, including seared scallops, salt and pepper squid, Thai beef salad, or a tomato salad with pickled walnuts and fresh basil. It is great to feature some of Australia’s delicious Riesling and Ms Rose, both of which deserve much more attention, as these wines are sublime and sometimes overlooked, as are most of the whites from Oz, which are much better than most people realize, in particular these Eden and Clare Rieslings, along with the Old Vine Semillon from the Hunter Valley, the Sem/Sauvs from Western Australia, the Chardonnays too, like Leeuwin’s, as well as the “Sticky” tawny style Muscats, which are some of the most interesting sweet wines in the world. Pewsey Vale has been working with organic methods for quite awhile and began certification in 2013 and has now expanded into biodynamics for their vineyard sites, which may explain the energy and extra dimension I am seeing in the latest release, don’t miss these exceptional dry Aussie Rieslings.
($18 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive