2024 'Toward Laidlaws' Riesling

Year after year, Hochkirch keeps raising the bar with their incredible Rieslings!

Again skin contact evident with pale yellow colour Sweet lemon/citrus nose with hint of wet stone. Sweet riesling fruit in mouth over dry, lively acid backbone and finishing with that engaging touch of noble phenolic bitterness.

The fruit comes from John Nagorcka’s biodynamically certified home farm, a site with 20 acres of vines that face north and sit in gravelly loam basalt soils about 250 metres above sea level.

The Riesling was picked by hand and pressed to tank for wild fermentation. After a month, the wine was racked off gross lees to tank for eight months’ maturation on fine lees. A small dose of sulphur was added before the wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

“From a northeast-facing vineyard and picked a few days before the west-facing Near Pipers Riesling. A medium, bright green gold. With its aromas of Meyer lemon, together with a touch of mandarin and chamomile, this is a gorgeous and complex wine from the first scent. Richly textured, flavoursome and zesty. This delicious, non-mainstream Australian riesling can be enjoyed now and over the next six to eight years at least.”

95+ points Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion.

"This is about as close to the ideal biodynamic vineyard as you could imagine: the 8 hectares of unirrigated vines and the winery are just one part of the Nagorcka family’s farm which also produces sheep, pigs and grain. The farm has been biodynamic since 1998: the wines get better with each vintage”.

- Max Allen.