Wines of the Week - January 12th

Our wines this week are in fact three vintages of the same wine, as my recent trip to Australia helped facilitate a mini-vertical of Grosset Polish Hill Riesling. The most highly regarded of Australian Rieslings, Jeffrey Grosset's flagship wine is fantastic when young, but it's always worth holding some bottles back to see how they can evolve over 7-10 years, or longer, in bottle.

Grosset Polish Hill Riesling 1999, 2000 and 2003

The 1999 vintage was the last bottled under cork and was certainly fully developed, and likely a little past it's best. However, it was a lovely wine, with typical aged Riesling characters of petrol, honey and lime, and some preferred it on the day to the 2000. The Clare Valley 1999 vintage was better for Riesling than the 2000 and 2003s, although not up to the standard of 2002.

The 2000 vintage, bottled under Stelvin, still showed remnants of its youthful zing, which I appreciated, although perhaps its flavours were more subdued than the '99, which is probably explained by the less than stellar vintage. Drink up.

My pick of the three vintages was the 2003, which is probably drinking at, or close to, its (mature) peak. It still has plenty of lively acidity, combined with well developed classic aged Clare flavours and offers plenty of enjoyment now and for the next 2-3 years.

Previous week.