Grosset, `Alea` Clare Valley Riesling

For the last forty years the Grosset ‘Springvale’ and ‘Polish Hill’ Rieslings have shown a consistent style and quality that have earned Jeffrey Grosset an unrivalled reputation. Through meticulous vineyard management and decades of experience, Jeffrey’s wines keep getting better. In the words of Campbell Mattinson in the Halliday Wine Companion, "Grosset has been a star producer for all the time I’ve been in wine, but right now its wines are as good or better than they’ve ever been"

Jeffrey’s love of Riesling began at 15 when his father came home with a bottle to share with the family. This bottle was enough to inspire a young Jeffrey to enrol in the local agricultural college and complete qualifications in both Agriculture and Oenology by the age of 21. After honing his craft in Australia and Germany, he bought an old milk depot in the Clare Valley town of Auburn, founding his eponymous winery in 1981. Since then, this old milk depot has been transformed into one of Australia’s finest wineries.

Grosset vineyards are located in the high country of the Clare Valley. Between 460-560 metres above sea level, they are the coolest sites in the region. The ‘hard rock’ blue slate of the eight-hectare Polish Hill site results in wines that are steely and magnificently age-worthy, while the red loam of the five-hectare Springvale vineyard gives more open and accessible, though no less complex, wines. Such is Jeffrey’s attention to detail that he noted a small strip (22 metres wide by 300 metres long) in his Rockwood vineyard that produced more generously flavoured wines due to a different soil. As a result, he decided to produce a separate wine from this site, ‘Alea’. Also from the Rockwood vineyard is the ‘G110’ Riesling, made in tiny quantities from a single clone (110). The G110 is a pure expression of variety and site, subtly perfumed with a lingering finish that is tight, ultra-dry and pure.

As the story of ‘Alea’ illustrates, Jeffrey is fanatical about the quality of his vineyards. Hand-tended and certified organic and biodynamic, the Grosset vineyards are farmed sustainably. In the winery, each process is gentle and uncomplicated. No fining agents are used, and sulphur is the only addition. By combining a disciplined approach in the vineyard and a delicate touch in the winery, Grosset consistently achieves the purest expression of variety and place. Indeed, his pure and precise Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reflect the single sites in the ultra-cool Piccadilly Valley, from where Jeffrey has sourced these grapes for the past 25 years.

Fascinated by the art of blending, Jeffrey has trialled Shiraz-based wines for years, resulting in the ‘Nereus’. With just a tiny amount of Nero d’Avola, it has a touch of perfume and freshness, with generous bramble and savoury overtones. The ’Rockwood Wild Shiraz’, made with indigenous yeasts and minimal intervention, is a characterful expression of Clare Valley Shiraz, with fine tannins and aromas of black cherry and mulberry. ‘Gaia’ remains one of Australia’s best Cabernet blends, made with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon from the isolated, windswept ‘Gaia’ vineyard he planted at the highest point of the Clare Valley in 1986. Grosset may be synonymous with Riesling, but the complexity and elegance of ‘Gaia’ demonstrate why Grosset reds are world-class and worthy of greater attention.