Description
Mount Horrocks Wines is operated by proprietor/winemaker Stephanie Toole, who restricts production to approximately 3,500 cases per annum in order to achieve her aims of quality and single vineyard expression. All three estate-owned Clare Valley vineyards, totalling ten hectares, are ‘A certified’ by Australian Certified Organic (ACO). James Halliday says “Stephanie Toole has never deviated from the pursuit of excellence in the vineyard and winery. She has three vineyard sites in the Clare Valley, each managed using natural farming and organic practices. The attention to detail and refusal to cut corners is obvious in all her wines. 5 Red Star Winery”
Stephanie carefully crafts “essentially hand-made food wines with emphasis on structure as well as generous fruit flavours”. Only estate grown grapes are used and these are hand-picked and gently handled under conditions that ensure the varietal and site-specific flavours in the resultant wine, as well as its organic status, are retained. As no finings have been found necessary the wines are all suitable for vegans and vegetarians. Only the finest French oak barriques are used for those wines spending time in barrel.
The remote, isolated Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling vineyard planted by Stephanie in 2001, sits in the north eastern corner of the Clare Valley’s Watervale subregion, on the very edge of the highly prized red soil over limestone.
Since ACO organic certification in 2012, Stephanie has produced beautifully flavoured and balanced wines from this hand-tended vineyard without the need to add acidity or finings; hence the vegan and vegetarian friendly status.
Mount Horrocks’ Watervale Riesling Vineyard is a very high (475 metre) vineyard planted on red loam over limestone, a profile that occurs throughout the sub-region and considered to be ‘classic’ for Watervale riesling. However that’s where the similarities end. The vineyard is on a gentle slope, facing south. Combined with the high altitude, this makes it a particularly cool spot, ideal for retaining freshness and a crisp palate while allowing generous fruit flavours to develop. Then there is the biodynamic and organic certification – strictly no chemical input here or in the surrounding land, also owned by Mount Horrocks. In what is now often considered ‘old fashioned’ all fruit is hand harvested – better for the vines as well as the fruit which is then delivered to the winery in a pristine state.
This is 100% pure expression of single site Riesling from an idyllic vintage. Aromatics more lemon than lime with delightful floral spice.
Expressive, concentrated citrus and pear fruits, ginger and honeysuckle with a touch of talc. Delicate yet flavoursome, crunchy, energetic and long on the palate, with crisp acidity providing zest and immense appeal. Big future ahead – easily 15+ years
97 points and Top 100 Wines for 2024 and Top 20 Whites over $35 by Nick Ryan, The Weekend Australian Magazine “Living in a wine region has its advantages. During harvest this year I bumped into winemaker Stephanie Toole in the greengrocers and she had a smile on her face that only just fit through the door. “We’ve just picked the best riesling fruit I’ve seen in my life,” she told me. Some winemakers can gild the lily but Toole isn’t one of them, and that early excitement becomes truth in this wine. Simply exceptional.”
TOP 250 AUSTRALIAN WINES 2024 and 95 Points, Tyson Stelzer – October 2024 “The cool 2024 season was particularly spectacular in the Clare Valley, translated impeccably by Stephanie Toole in a riesling of pristine purity, deep concentration and profound endurance. Pitch-perfect granny smith apple and lime build a palate of considerable presence, traced with natural acidity of heightened cut and tension.”
95 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front “Mount Horrocks Watervale Riesling 2024 is a banger. It tastes of slate, lime, chalk and something more floral, I’m seeing pink and white flowers, like marshmallows in bloom. There’s good intensity to this wine but it’s more about flow, feel and length. Yes. Absolutely yes.”
94 Points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review “Delicate reserved fragance of powder-puff talcum fragrance, pastry/doughy, chalky, floral and subtly yeasty in its infancy. There’s a definite salty mineral savouriness that lingers long on the finish. Drink 2025–2036″
RRP $45 Our Special Price $41.99
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