Ranked #6 of 31 2004 Riesling from Clare Valley
95/100
5 Stars
Huon Hooke
Light to medium yellow, waxy and nutty aromas, white flowers and lemon pith. Palate fine and soft, gentle and easy, but also refined and delicate. Juicy, but dry: delicious wine, combines power with refinement.
Tasted: 11/10/2011
Drink: 2011 to 2016
94 Points James Halliday
Intensely floral aromas of apple blossom, a touch of passionfruit and a twist of lime lead into a very well balanced and long palate, with a core of minerally acidity. Drink to 2014.
James Halliday. August, 2022
"Chalky, spicy, sweet-fruited, primed with pear, lemon and lychee and finishing bitter. Gorgeous early-drinking style. Absolute ripper to scoff now." 91 points.
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, 1 January 2005
The Petaluma Riesling is classifed as "Distinguished" in the Langtons 2010 Classification of Austalian wines. It is one of Australia's and the Clare Valley's best rieslings, admired for its delicacy and finesse.
The grapes are hand-picked off old vines from Petaluma'’s Hanlin Hill Vineyard, planted in 1968 to the most easterly slope of the Clare Valley. Bunches are de-stemmed, the berries gently crushed, chilled to less than 5°C and treated to a Willmes tank press.
The free run juice is then cold settled in tank and clarified without filtration. This bright, clear juice is then racked into fermentation tanks and inoculated with Petaluma’s chosen yeast. A cool fermentation at 10°C to 13°C ensues over the next several weeks, at sugar dryness the wine is chilled in place to -2°C, before a gently filtration to bottle.