Polish Hill River Riesling 2002

O'Leary Walker Polish Hill River Riesling 2002 At the O'Leary Walker 10th Anniversary event, we looked at pretty much every wine they've made, in vertical sets. It showed just what a brilliant job they have done in such a short time. Their Polish Hill River Riesling comes from a vineyard they picked up when a high profile Clare Valley producer rejected the fruit. They've kept it ever since. All of these wines are under screwcap. There was no 2007 in the tasting as the guys could not find a bottle. It is really worth stressing just what extraordinary value these O'LW wines are. 2002 is probably the best vintage in the last couple of decades for the Clare Valley and well cellared examples are not only spectacular now but have a long future, especially if bottled under screwcap (most in the Valley bottled some or all of their production from this vintage under screwcap). The O'LW was no different, indeed, one could argue it was one of the very best wines of that great year. It opened with lovely lemony notes and then moved more to a lemon pie character with a hint of toast. It is absolutely immaculate and we are just seeing the early development of this wine. It is fragrant, delicate and finely balanced, still with bright acidity and a very long finish. A truly superb wine and one that still has a few decades ahead of it. A superstar. Given that this would have been cheaper than a great many sauv blancs at the time of release, was brilliant young and has just got better and better, what possesses people to buy those third rate, one-dimensional toxic bombs instead of amazing wines like this? It will become very obvious, very quickly, just how impressed I am by these wines and indeed, with everything these guys do. 97

- Ken Gargett