Magpie Hill Reserve Riesling 2023
ASIAN PEAR • CURRY LEAF • NECTARINE
2023 produced a small crop of fantastic quality with green fruited aromas and a complex, multi-layered palate reminiscent of the famous 2017 vintage. 750ml.
Accolades
96 points, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
[This wine] is so, so pretty on the nose, almost achingly so. It offers notes of lime blossom, crushed rocks, jasmine flower, tamarind, saffron, a hint of mustard seed, white pepper, juniper berry, apple cider apples (actually, more specifically, there is an aroma in here reminiscent of the "tang!" in scrumpy cider) and curry leaf—I could go on. In the mouth, the wine is concentrated and intense. The acid would almost hurt were it not for the slew of juicy, saliva-inducing salty characters in there. It is detailed, nuanced and exciting. Juicy.
95 points, The Real Review
Ranked #3 of 30 2023 Riesling from Australia
Intense lemon-verbena, freshly rolled pastry and nettle aromas, the palate light-bodied and very tangy with prominent acidity, the fruit intense and crisp, delicate and refined, with a very long finale.
94 points, Halliday Wine Companion
Acid hounds, line up! This is a brittle and tense riesling of super limey/tart lemony flavour profile, a very compact, rapier-like thrust across the palate and vividly refreshing. Skeletal and bony, it's terrifically taut and precise with excellent flavour extension. Drinking this in its vivid youth delivers a tightly wound expression; cellaring should deliver a more mellow, relaxed wine. For now, strap in, it's goosebumps stuff with its citrus impact, but great for it, too.
Halliday Top 5 Star Winery
Halliday defines top five-stars as "Outstanding winery regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and typicity"
Appearance: pale straw, green edges
Aroma: citrus blossom of lime and lemon, pippin apple, green mango with hints of daffodil, lemon sherbet, curry leaf, Asian pear and honey dew melon; intense, complex and lifted
Palate: lime peel, granny smith apple, passionfruit, white nectarine, orange oil green papaya; elegant, long persistence, refined, razor sharp focus with a seamless complete texture
A cool dry winter gave way to very wet and cool spring in the Porongurups topping up soil moisture, but the chilly periods led to issues with flowering which resulted in crops up to 50% lower than average. Slow vine growth indicated a late harvest, yet the new year brought dry windy conditions, necessitating some targeted critical irrigation. Nets went on early to ward off birds which were hungry due to a poor Marri blossom event. Late March (a week later than the 2022 vintage) saw the first Riesling come in with tiny yields of exceptional quality. Typical sporadic rain events peppered March with some larger ones happening in early April. By mid April, a week of sunny, warm and breezy weather (perfect for our reds) allowed us to pick fully ripe, clean fruit until the end of the month.
An exceptional year of achingly low yields, giving complex and complete wines of detail and plushness.
Beginning in late March, the grapes were meticulously hand-harvested, sorted in the early morning, and then delivered to the winery to be chilled overnight at 0C in a cool room. The fruit was whole bunch pressed in a tank press using a sparkling wine cycle with as few rotations as possible to minimise colour and skin tannin pick up. The free-run juice was kept separate from the pressings and fermented in stainless steel at 15C utilising a carefully selected aromatic yeast to preserve aromatics. A small portion was fermented in seasoned French oak barriques to give texture. This was reintroduced to the main ferment after several weeks. The wine was then aged on lees (grape and yeast solids) for two months before being bottled in June.
This was a year of tiny quantities delivering a wine of incredible complexity with powerful aromatics and laser precision framed by mineral texture speaking of the granitic sandy clay loams of the vineyard.
- Vintage 2023
- Alcohol 12.3%
- Varietal Riesling
- Bottling date June 2023
- Region Great Southern, Western Australia
- Sub-region Porongurup
- Residual sugar 0.4 g/l
- pH 3.0
- Acidity 7.8 g/l