Heggies Eden Valley Riesling 2009
Royal Queensland Wine Show 2009 GOLD MEDAL
The Royal Queensland Wine Show is one of Australia’s oldest, most prestigious and highly-contested wine shows. The first of the annual national wine shows held in capital cities across Australia, the show allows Australia’s best wine producers to showcase the new season’s vintage.
It's a little-known fact that the history of winegrowing in the Eden Valley region dates back just as far as the neighbouring Barossa Valley. Joseph Gilbert, ancestor of contemporary Mudgee winemaker Simon Gilbert, planted Pewsey Valley in 1847, the same year Johann Gramp started Orlando. Pewsey Vale went out of production in the early part of the 20th century but was replanted by Yalumba in the 1960s, beginning in '61. A few years later, Heggies was also developed by Yalumba in the same locality. both have carved their fame with the Riesling. Heggies began with the '79 vintage.
Today they are both fine examples of the understated, minerally, long-ageing Eden Valley Riesling style, but are subtly different. Yalumba senoir white-winemaker Louisa Rose sees Heggies as a tighter, more steely style than Pewsey, leaning towards green-apple flavours. "It's a slightly higher, cooler site, and the grapes ripen at a lower sugar level," she says.
Heggies is a single vineyard in the Eden Valley where the 'terroir' is encouraged to produce the distinctive Heggies wine styles. The soil is a thin layer of grey sandy loam over clay and decomposed rock - and vines compete vigorously for moisture and nutrient. An altitude of 550 m above sea level, 787 mm of annual rain, plus innovative viticultural practises produce wines of an extremely high quality.
The Heggies Vineyard grapes are picked in the cool of the night and swiftly transported to our winery. There is minimal handling of the juice and only the free run portion is selected for Heggies Riesling. The juice is fermented at a cool temperature using aromatic yeasts and blended early at the completion of fermentation. At Heggies there are a number of blocks of Riesling available so when the final blend is made there is a variety of options ensuring each vintage is of consistently excellent quality. The nose shows delicate floral notes, enveloping citrus blossom and a touch of musk. The palate opens with grapefuit zest developing further to a white flower fullness and a crisp minerality on the finish. The wine lingers refreshingly with a fine balance between stylish Riesling fruit notes and natural acidity. Drink now or cellar for a minimum of five years.
The 2008/09 growing season opened well with regular rains despite sufficient run-off to fill our dams. The dry conditions prevailed in late 2008 which enabled good set of Riesling grapes but brought concerns as to whether there would be adequate water to carry the fruit through until harvest. Fortunately a couple of strategically timed rainfalls topped up the soils freshening the vines and sparing our limited water. As the grapes were not sufficiently advanced, the late January early February heatwave did not affect Heggies Vineyard and conditions were mild and favourable for the rest of the season. Harvest proceeded in an even orderly manner and the blocks were picked at their most balanced flavour, acidity and ripeness.
|
