Skillogalee Trevarrick Riesling 2015

Awarded 89 points and Recommended status by Decanter in their April 2018 edition review of Australian Riesling.

Decanter review- When Dave and Diana Palmer left the UK, it was supposed to be a three-year stint in Papua New Guinea, where Dave had found a job. Six years later, work took them to Canberra until, three years further on, Dave resigned to set up his own business. By this point, Skillogalee had already entered their lives, mainly because they’d drunk plenty of it with the eldest son of the owners, and sold it at a festival. Then they heard that the winery was up for sale…so naturally they sold the house and the sports car, packed up the kids and the cat, and moved to South Australia.
What drew them to this small corner of the Clare Valley? Beyond the wines, it was possibly the mature, established vineyards, beautifully contoured and equipped to produce everything from aromatic Riesling and Gewürztraminer to full-flavoured Cabernet and Shiraz, plus lusciously sweet liqueur Muscat. But they were following in earlier English footsteps too. Skillogalee was given its name by Lancashire-born explorer John Horrocks after a troubled expedition into the Flinders Ranges when skillogalee – a Celtic name for a thin gruel – was all they had left to eat. Meanwhile, Trevarrick – Skillogalee’s finest Riesling – comes from the property’s original name, Trevarrick Farm, given to it in 1851 by Cornish miner John Trestrail – who built the stone cottage which still serves as Skillogalee’s cellar door.
Trevarrick was the original name of the Skillogalee property, settled by John and Anne Trestrail in the early 1850’s. In 1970 it was planted to vines and renamed. Now at Skillogalee, each individual contour block on the estate is harvested and vinified separately. The Trevarrick name is reserved for wines that are of exceptional quality and varietal character.
The grapes for this wine were selectively harvested off the highest altitude, earliest ripening contour on the property at around 500m. The stony, thin soils and topography of this part of the vineyard produce unique, high quality grapes bursting with varietal character.
The 2015 Trevarrick Riesling was made from 100% hand-picked fruit. Only first-cut free run juice was used to ensure the varietal character was captured in the finished wine. The wine shows an intense lift of lime, bathpowder and floral perfume on the nose with a touch of orange blossom. The palate is highly structured and the mineral notes speak strongly of the Skillogalee Dolomite soils that nurtured the vines.
The wine is sealed using a glass Vino-Lok stopper to ensure its longevity and freshness.