While Eden Valley may not carry the same weight, both figuratively and literally, as Clare Valley…it certainly can and should. Pewsey Vale, Leo Buring, Dandelion Vineyards and others have paved the way for the citrus-tinged, mineral-driven style that Eden is synonymous with. Enter ‘the flowers.’ Louis drew upon the quartz-dominant soils and cool-climate of the Eden but wanted to express a bit more weight and texture to the wine, à la Clare. The result is a textural masterpiece of chalky, leesy, barrel-fermented, half-century old vine Riesling. The ’22 vintage shows more intensity on the palate, with a ripping 8.6 g/L acidity and 11 g/L residual sugar.
The fruit was hand-harvested from the Wardlaw’s Pendee Farm at the gateway to the Eden Valley and whole-bunch pressed with full lees to old 500L French oak barriques for fermentation. Fermentation kicked off naturally and Louis stirred the lees over the course of two to three weeks. The wine sat on the lees for the duration of aging and without any sulfur addition. After three months of aging the barrels were racked to tank to settle naturally and bottled without fining or filtration and just a small sulfur addition.