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Wine Description
The Story
Steingarten Riesling is regarded as one of the benchmark examples of fine Australian Riesling made in a dry style, and is the highest quality Riesling made under the Jacob’s Creek label.
The wine was originally vintaged in 1967 and its name means “Stone Garden” in German. It is named after the famous Steingarten vineyard that was first planted by Colin Gramp in 1962 on a steep rocky site in Eden Valley, from which the grapes were originally sourced.
Today the grapes are harvested from selected older Riesling blocks within Eden Valley including Steingarten Vineyard. These prized Riesling vineyards are of Easterly aspect, so are protected from the afternoon sun by the surrounding hills and ranges. The vines survive in predominately shallow soils over fractured shale or schist rock, which drives the classic mineral character of this wine. Winemaking focus is on retaining purity of the fruit. Grapes are harvested at night (or hand-picked in the early morning in the case of the Steingarten Vineyard) followed by gentle pressing and careful temperature controlled fermentation, with early bottling under screw-cap to best preserve freshness.
Steingarten Riesling displays classic cool climate Riesling characters, revealing intense lime, grapefruit and rose petal notes, which are harmoniously entwined with a ‘dry’ flinty mineral structure that adds persistence and length, providing excellent potential to develop further with careful cellaring for twenty or more years. Steingarten Riesling was awarded the Barossa Trust Mark since 2014 which guarantees its top quality and genuine Barossa origin.
Flavour profile: Delicate fresh blossom aromas teamed with juicy lemon flavours. Finely balanced, showing juicy lemon and lime flavours, supported by elegant mineral acidity.
Complements: Oysters with mirin dressing or seared scallops with mediterranean vegetables tossed with lemon dressing.
Vintage 2002
Australia 2002 was a cold year with plenty of winter and spring rain to support the vines for the year. Summer and fall were completely dry. The summer was the coldest on record. Fall had one of the warmest endings. All of this meant that we had very low yields of grapes and produced high quality wines. The grapes had a very good scent (nose and taste, more floral than usual), good concentration and good acidity. A great year for whites and maybe a few reds. However, it was important to pick the grapes very ripe and keep the nitrogen to a minimum.
