Austin’s Late Harvest Riesling

Tasting notes

Appearance: bright, light straw

Nose: a fresh, vibrant wine with intense aromatic floral aromas and nuances of lime, lemon and raisins

Palate: a lush middle palate, harnessed by a zesty clean acid edge. This provides a delicious counterpoint and carries the citrus and floral notes to the end of the palate.

Awards

96 POINTS (GOLD RATING) – WINE COMPANION 2020

2020 Sweet Varietal Winners – TOP 3 – Halliday Wine Companion 2020

Silver Medal – National Cool Climate Wine Show

Silver Medal – Canberra International Riesling Challenge 2019

Gold Medal – Geelong Wine Show 2019

Food Pairings

With a creamy dessert like crème brulee or pannacotta, this is the perfect finish to an evening meal. It also pairs well with a cheese board for a delicious afternoon treat. And it’s just as good on its own as a palate cleanser between meals or as an aperitif. This is a versatile sweet wine to impress even the fussiest of wine drinkers.

Why Moorabool Valley riesling?

Moorabool Valley riesling has all the characteristics of an exemplary riesling. These are wines of great power and concentration, with precise varietal definition and deft balance.

Continental in nature, we’re close to the Southern Ocean and dry in summer. The cool climate gives our wine full ripeness and beautiful finesse.

Moorabool Valley has a rich history, with ancient volcanic soils containing a tough limestone and basalt base. This forms this sub-region’s unique terroir and provides the ideal free-draining soil for our grapevines.

Our Riesling grows on a steep slope with a southerly aspect. The growing conditions are slightly cooler than the rest of our vineyards which helps slow the ripening rate. Coupled with deep loamy soil strewn with limestone deposits, we have all the right conditions to produce fragrant, delicate riesling with a steely backbone and slatey minerality.

We aim to do a couple picks of riesling to create a range of flavours in the wine. In the grapes picked early, we see the lime and lemon notes. As riesling ripens on the vine it takes on more floral notes, but this all happens between 10.5 and 12.5 baume. Picked later we see more tropical fruit notes and lower acidity. The wine also runs the risk of developing ‘kerosene’ notes as it ages, so picking early has many advantages for the style we want to produce.

The Austin’s Vineyard

Austin’s has been located in the heart of the Moorabool Valley since 1990, a cool climate wine region steeped in rich history. Nestled between Geelong & Ballarat, the Moorabool Valley’s small, family run vineyards provide rich and intense low yield fruit, an ideal terroir for producing award-winning wines.

The Austin’s Estate is across 1,500 acres, with 150 under vine. The land boasts rich volcanic, limestone soils and a terrain that sits in a rain shadow.

Challenging weather conditions makes the Moorabool Valley one of the most complicated places to make wine, yet it produces some of the region’s best wines, notably, pinot noir.

Sitting on the ocean floor some 20,000 years ago, this land has been reclaimed by millennia of volcanic activity. Geelong’s Moorabool Valley sub-region has a tough limestone and basalt base. This gives the sub-region its unique terroir and provides the ideal free-draining soil for our grapevines.

Moorabool Valley’s cool climate is continental by nature but still moderated by its proximity to the ocean. This provides perfect conditions to grow world-class wines. All our vines are planted north–south and trained vertically. The canopies are managed to provide enough light and air into the fruit zone to maximise vine quality and health.

Careful irrigation during the growing season ensures healthy vine growth and even ripening which is the key to quality fruit.

Read more about the Moorabool Valley region here.

Wine making notes

We pick the fruit later than our dry riesling so the sugars in the fruit is higher. This riesling was hand-picked after a relatively warm and dry autumn on 24 April 2018 at 30.2 brix and 7.0 g/L total acidity (compared with the dry riesling picked in early March).

The fruit was destemmed to a tank press under inert gas. It was left to soak for 20 hours on its raisin-like skins to extract more sweetness and flavour. The fruit was then pressed to 400 L/tonne to get the best of the fruit, whilst the balance of the harder pressed juice was pumped to a separate tank. Settled, then racked, the juice began a slow fermentation. With the ferment down to 100 g/l of sugar, the process was paused by dropping the temperature and adding SO₂ (sulfur dioxide), then the wine was quickly filtered. Late Harvest Riesling was bottled into 375ml bottles in October 2018.

Season

Plenty of moisture in the ground and moderate weather conditions through spring and early summer provided ideal growing conditions. Flowering in November was quick, and the ensuing berry set was good, despite heavy rainfall late November. Yields were average with plenty of bunches, though lower in weight. A hot summer and minimal rain made for an early start to vintage which was over quickly. Riesling was handpicked after a relatively warm and dry autumn on 24 April 2018 at 30.2 brix and 7.0 g/L total acidity. The 3.0 t/ha yield was half the yield of the dry riesling picked in early March.

Shipping

We know you’d love to be drinking your wine as soon as possible. That’s why we will dispatch your order within 24 hours of your placing it.*

We are located in the Moorobool Valley, Victoria. We use either a courier, Fastway or Australia Post depending on the location. Orders are picked up our orders every afternoon at 3pm. Once fulfilled, you will receive an email confirming it’s dispatch with a tracking ID so you can follow it the entire journey.

How much does it cost?

Free shipping AUS wide with any purchase over $99.

For any purchase under $99:

• VIC – $10
• Every other state $20

When will it arrive?

• Geelong – 1-2 Business Days
• Melbourne – 1-2 Business Days
• Rest of Victoria – 1-2 Business Days
• NSW/ACT – 2-3 Business Days
• SA – 2-3 Business Days
• TAS – 4-5 Business Days
• QLD – 5-7 Business Days
• WA – 7 Business Days
• NT – 7 Business Days

If you order hasn’t arrived within this time frame, please contact us so we can chase it up for you.

* In warmer months we will not dispatch orders on Friday to avoid heat issues with wine during transport. During sale times please allow 48 hours for dispatch. 24 hours refers to next business day.

Returns

We are very confident in the quality of our wines that if for any reason you feel the wine is not up to standard, follow these steps to enable a refund:

1. Notify us within 30 days of your delivery that you will like a refund. Any feedback during this time would be appreciated.
2. We’ll send you a return shipping label and you can book in a pick up address and time that suits you.
3. Upon inspection of the goods returned, if they are in the same condition as to how they were sent*, we will issue a refund to you.

*’Same condition to how they were sent’ simply means – no damaged labels, wine must have been stored in appropriate temperature conditions (not in a freezer or in direct sunlight or in damp conditions). The shipment is to be sent back in the original box and include the empty bottle of wine you have consumed to ensure the package is shipped safely.

If for some reason the wine was delivered to you damaged, simply take a photo of the stock and we will send a replacement.