2019 Red Robin Riesling

Description

TASTING NOTES

Colour, Bouquet & Palate:
Pale straw and Green tones, a very clean nose with classic Clare lime and lifted lemon blossom aromas. A perfectly balanced, delightful full bodied dry Riesling with a refreshing acidity, luscious and complex mouth filling lemon and grapefruit citrus flavours with lingering length on the palate.

Food suggestions:
This dry Riesling style with its refreshing acidity is the perfect food and wine accompaniment. It partners superbly with a wide range of food styles that benefit from a squeeze of lemon. Fish, crustaceans, chicken and spicy cuisine.

Viticulture: The Vineyard
All Riesling fruit is sourced from our boutique “Henry Ely” Vineyard, sited 420 metres above sea level at Penwortham in the heart of the Clare Valley.

The vineyard gently slopes to the West, tucked between two of the Valleys famous ranges. As a consequence the vineyard receives early shading from the afternoon summer sun adding the natural acidity and ripeness. The pH neutral, fertile soils have a mixture of Terra Rossa soils, sections of friable brown loam and patches of dark chocolate clay. Rainfall is naturally captured & stored into underground perched reef aquifers. Our totally dry grown fruit flourishes across all vintage seasons including periods of extended dry weather. The vineyard sits on a mixture of reef structures; sandstone, slate and limestone. Mid row, selected summer green weed growth is encouraged to reduce canopy temperatures during peak summer. The vines are hand pruned in winter and have a concentrated, summer hand pruning and canopy management regime to ensure fruit bunch protection from any flavour damaging peak summer, UV rays

Vinification & Maturation
The 2018-19 vintage season proved to be very dry with the latter period in drought conditions. Our dry grown Henry Ely vineyard stood up well to these conditions with a good advantaged, small berry set. Ripening period temperatures were not excessively hot with periods of limited rainfall occurring continuing from January to harvest on the 12th March 2019. Summer growth was limited by the dry conditions, ongoing summer vineyard time was provided for pruning vine canopies to open them up for improved air circulation. Our optimum ripening conditions & healthy vine canopy have given rise to a Riesling of exceptional quality. However only 5.29 tonnes were harvested as the crop tonnage was severely depleted in the latter months by attacks from Feral deer, kangaroos and parrots whose normal bush feed was impacted by drought. The fruit was harvested in the early morning, (4.30am to 6.30am) so the Riesling fruit entered the winery at the lowest day temperatures less than 13 degrees C. The fruit processing commenced within 2 hours of harvest. The de-stemmed fruit was cooled to 4 degrees Celsius & stored in stainless steel. The fruit & skins were given minimal pressing, with juice extraction limited to 500 litres per tonne of grapes. The fruit was de-juiced, clarified & fermented over 2 weeks at a temperature of less than 14ºC. The wine was protein & cold stabilized with minimal sulphur dioxide added. The finished wine was bottled on 12th June 2019.

WINE SPECIFICATIONS

Alcohol – 12.22%

Acid – 6.88g/L

pH – 2.96

Residual Sugars – 3.3g/L

Quantity – 2,900 L

Cellaring – With care until 2028