2002 was a terrific year for Riesling in South Australia. Both the Eden and Clare Valley’s produced vibrant wine’s realising outstanding, pristine fruit, indelible acidity and wonderful ageworthy structure that (mostly) are standing up to time in bottle with considerable aplomb.

Displaying a bright light green/pale straw colour followed by a fine zesty bouquet of lime, grapefruit pith, crushed slate, green pear, apple skin and minerals. The palate is extraordinarily fresh and vibrant with crisp lime, pear and apple fruit, a driving mineral spine, exemplary acid cut, good carry and a wonderfully invigorating and lengthy apply finish. With at least another decade of development to look forward to, this wine could hold for considerably longer if the screwcap seal and proper cellaring conditions prevail. For the record I rate this wine at 92 points with a higher mark in store if it continues to gain complexity whilst retaining its freshness and vitality. 13.0% A/V.

H. M. Martin, grower, 100% Shiraz grapes from Langhorne Creek, South Australia.

Quite an unusual hazy muted ruby/brownish colour with incredible viscous tears hanging to the side of the glass. Intoxicating, brandied-chocolate nose of aged licorice, spicy, earthy blackberries, dusty old leather, a twist of caramel and a whiff of amaretto - almost a hybrid of styles here - distinctly Australian but with plausible links to a Portuguese thoroughbred. The palate offers up a similar array of complex flavours, possesses a gorgeous silky texture, abundant viscosity, lovely weight and a resolved finish with a modicum of spirit adding a deft touch of astringency. Just the shortest glimpse of the chocolate/licorice/blackberry fruit giving up the ghost at the death, but not enough for me to give this Outstanding wine a rating of 93 points. Drink now or in the next year or three.

Being in the midst of trying to contain a bout of high blood sugars, alcohol consumption is not a good idea and should be frowned upon by all and sundry (including moi), but in this case I had my parents over for fish and salad earlier in the week, opening this bottle for them and I have been drinking about 50-60ml/per day over the last three days. The most surprising aspect of this outstanding wine’s evolution is there’s no downside! In fact, I thought it better tonight than when first opened and without the faintest hint of oxidation - quite remarkable for a wine that’s already been worked aplenty at the winery.

Boasting an attractive, glowing youthful straw colour, lifted aromatics of spicy new oak, bacon fat, meal, some leesy barrel reduction over subdued grapefruit, nectarine and guava fruit and a superbly delineated, tight and focussed palate offering up a terrific array of citrus, stonefruits and complex nutty, leesy characters with the barest suggestion of butter and butterscotch. And to round things out, there’s plenty of bright integrated acidity to maintain freshness as well as an invigorating lengthy departure. My only criticism was an intitial burst of astringency in the finish on day one, that dissipated over the first hour and has not been seen since. One could be tempted to think this of Burgundian ancestry if unaware of its identity - it could pass as a superior Puligny 1er Cru, 6-8 years of age. An extremely impressive effort with some time up its sleeve for further improvement. Drink now-2012+. Screwcap 13.5% A/V. All Adelaide Hills (South Australia) fruit. 92 points

Vented my concerns at my last bottle opened due to overpowering reductive characters on both nose and palate. Thought it opportune to crack another to compare.

Brilliant, starbright palest of straw/green colour. Sensational fresh aromatics of citrus blossoms, intense limey minerals and slightly browned wholemeal toast. The palate delivers an identical story; power-packed, incredibly well-delineated with laser-like focus, rapier minerally acidity supporting bucketloads of tight lime fruit. Finishes with sublime crispness, almost perfect equilibrium and astonishing length. 94 points. A thoroughly brilliant example with, perhaps, two decades of superior drinking ahead. Now my only concern is - why was this bottle so good and the last one so reductive? Perhaps one of the screwcap experts can enlighten me about such flagrant bottle variation from such a top producer?

Bottled under screwcap with an A/V of 13.0%

Tuesday night I got to try a masked 2001 Seven Hills Clare Valley Riesling - most impressive - revealing a youthful straw/green colour, terrific aromatics of lime, herbs and the first vestige of toast, honey and kero. Brilliant mid-palate of lime pastille, mineral with a moderate/long dry, crisp departure. 91 points. Drink now-2011. Cork sealed.

I followed with my masked bottle of 1996 Seppelt Dorrien Cabernet - Outstanding wine really coming in to its’ own - deep colour, robust nose of savoury/vanillin/coconut oak, dark plums, chocolate, Asian spices, cedar and herbs - all beautifully integrated. The palate displays plenty of extract, glossy choco-berry fruit, plenty of supporting cedary/savoury oak, good acidity and very fine lacey tannins. Lovely smooth, rounded mouthfeel, extraordinary balance and a lengthy authoritative after-taste. 93 points. Drink now-2016.

Nineteen-ninety-eight delivered some brilliant Riesling from Eden Valley - this example attests to the actuality. 13.0% A/V. Cork-sealed.

Harbouring a vibrant bright lemon green colour, the bouquet just screams from the glass with intense toasty lime and minerals filling the olfactories. Still fresh and invigorating. The palate boasts a crispness belying its age with intense lime and grapefruit pith providing an abundance of mouthfilling flavour while the slatey/minerally acidity offers up the perfect counterbalance to the juicy fruit. Finishes long and dry with just a suggestion of being phenolic. Otherwise, Exceptional. Drink now-2013+. 94 points. 

Christie and Peter Shultz have produced a very good rich, chocolatey wine off ancient vines located at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley in nineteen-ninety-nine. Still holding a solid deep red colour, the bouquet houses a fair whack of seasoned French oak imparting savoury notes of chocolate and mocha. A little touch of cigar box adds complexity. Autumn leaves and a hint of dried herbs add a nice varietal touch to the equation. Mostly blackberry and plum fruit underneath. The medium-bodied palate delivers a smooth, mouthcoating texture, low acidity and soft, ripe tannins on a relatively long, satisfying finish. The fruit and oak have meshed superbly offering up flavours of dark chocolate, plum with a distinct “sweetness”. The savoury/coffee oak seems more subdued here, although the flavour profile probably says more about the climate/region than the variety. Drinking extremely well now and for a few years to come - 88 points - Very Good, verging on Excellent. 14% A/V, and sealed with a pathetically small cork.

A superb example of Polish Hill Riesling revealing classic aged bottled characters and, seemingly, an almost indelible freshness. Displaying a youthful bright light yellow colour, the bouquet offers up an intriguing integrated amalgam of honey, freshly squeezed limes, toast and just a whiff of petrol. In the mouth, the wine excels with a superb richness of nuance as detailed above, gorgeous mouthfilling texture, seamlessly meshed to very fine minerally acidity, followed by a gloriously mature honeyed, but still refreshing, departure suggesting this wine is close to reaching its zenith. Drink now-2012. 93 points. Brilliant, for what it is! 12.5% A/V and sealed with a conventional cork. 

Made by the legendary ex-Leo Buring Riesling guru, John Vickery, sealed with a stelvin screwcap and 12% alcohol by volume.

The most brilliant starbright pale lemon/green. If not for the severe reduction on both nose and palate, I believe there’d be a lot to like about this wine. Continual small pours over six hours all suffered the same fate - cordite, struck match and rubber overpowering some delectable tight citrus fruit with a toasty undertone. The acid structure on the palate provides suggests many years of development if not for the dominating sulphide problems, of course. Bummer. 75 points. Postscript - the last glass sat for one hour without swirling and definitely lost some of the sulphur on both nose and palate - a much better wine in every department. Closer to 85 points now.

Once again, raises the issue of proper/careful sulphur management by winemakers when using screwcaps.

Readers familiar with my musings over the years will attest to my predilection for this winery. The decision to axe Dorrien as a “stand alone” label after this particular vintage has prompted a similar level of vehemence, but in this case, only dismay, for what I and many others consider to be an icon of the Australian wine industry. Since its inaugural vintage of 1971, Dorrien Cabernet represents the very best of what can be done with this grape variety in the warmer viticultural climes of the Barossa Valley. The decision from the corporate masters for Seppelt to cease production of this “jewel in the crown” and to concentrate solely on a “Victorian” portfolio has baffled me to a state of virtual senselessness. Recent alarming reports of Southcorp selling off the fortified division based at the magnificent historic Seppetsfield winery and, hence, well over a hundred years of world class winemaking heritage should only appease our concern once the operation is in safe hands, hopefully with the masterful James Godfrey still at the helm.

The 1999 Dorrien displays a vibrant deep ruby/purple with a polished hue, a bouquet featuring a gorgeous array of chocolate-coated black plums and currants, Provencale herbs, a little cedary/sandalwood character with a fair dollop of beautifully-judged toasty malty/savoury/vanillin oak providing weight and backbone. The palate has finally dropped some of its earlier oaky rawness, exhibiting a wealth of chocolatey black fruits, smooth texture, relatively understated acidity and some top-class fine-grained tannin on a protracted and most satisfying finish. A lovely wine and a fitting tribute to almost three decades of great wine folklore. 92 points. Drink now-2014.