Billy Button Riesling 2023

Jo Marsh is not a box ticker. She embraces every task with great expectation and seeks out the path less travelled. With a focus on alternate varietals, Jo produces an astounding array of wines, which, including cellar door only wines, comprises over 20 different varietals, some in miniscule quantities. Working closely with local growers, Jo has helped to breathe new life into this tiny wine region, and shine a light on the breadth and depth of the grape varietal variation that we have in Australia. Jo follows no rule book, she believes in doing what’s best for the wine, polishing and perfecting, highlighting the fruit and sculpting the palate so the wine flows through the mouth with texture and interest.

Christened "The Torment” for its inaugural vintage when Jo broke her own rule- sourcing Billy Button grapes exclusively from the Alpine Valleys.

 

Riesling is Jo’s favourite white variety and very little is grown or available in the region. When some pristine fruit was offered by a grower in the King Valley Jo could not say no and the deal was done! The Croucher Vineyard is at an elevation of 800 metres in the picturesque Whitlands subregion of the King Valley and produces impeccable cool climate fruit.

A cool season has produced a powerful wine with wonderful natural acidity and pristine varietal characters.

The fruit was handpicked and chilled before being crushed, destemmed, and pressed. Once cold settled the juice was racked clean and inoculated with selected yeast to capture varietal character. After a cool and slow ferment, the wine was sulphured and left on lees in stainless steel until clarification and bottling in July 2023.

Lifted aromas of lemon and lime with notes of wet slate. The concentrated lime continues through to a palate that is pristine and tight. Mouth-watering acidity and remarkable length lend itself to a wine that is only going to get better with age. A true reflection of this remarkable cool vineyard.

Optimal Drinking Window – now (if you are a fan of mouth-watering acid and pristine fruit) to 2043.

Vineyard:         Croucher Vineyard, Whitlands

Region:            Whitlands, King Valley

Alcohol:           11.0%

Winemaker:     Glenn James, Melissa Fettke and Jo Marsh

Quintessential Aussie riesling, blaring lime blossom, lemon drop and tonic water to good length. A little green, to be twee. Yet the thrust, juiciness and grippy drive override any sense of overt astringency. Good drinking. Awarded 91 points, Ned Goodwin, JamesSuckling.com - Publinshed 24 January 2024