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£23.50
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Dried herbs and wild flowers come together on the nose, with a direct linear core to this Semillon Sauvignon Blanc. Peaches, stone fruits and citrus flavours dance on the palate with a crisp long finish.
At age 15, Jeffrey Grosset’s father brought home a bottle of riesling to share with his family, Jeffrey tasted the wine and was amazed by its flavour. A year later, he enrolled at Roseworthy Agricultural College, north of Adelaide, studying agriculture and oenology. He thereafter worked at Seppelt before travelling to and from Germany. Jeffrey setup Grosset Wines in 1981, buying an old milk depot in the town of Auburn in the Clare Valley, converting the depot into a winery, and later, a cellar door.
Jeffrey’s interest in innovation ensured his successful push for the introduction of screw cap closures as a way of better preserving wines in bottle, and eliminating the possibility of cork taint. Grosset also fought hard in the 1980s to ensure that the term ‘riesling’ could not be used as a blanket label for any white wine sold in cardboard casks. While Grosset exports overseas, production is capped at 11,000 cases, ‘to preserve the character and individuality of the wines.’
Grosset is best known for its Polish Hill Riesling, regarded as one of Australia’s best. It consistently receives stellar reviews and is classed as ‘Exceptional’ in Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine. Grosset has been established within an eight-hectare, organic, estate vineyard planted several decades ago on ‘silt and shallow shales over a thin crust of clay and gravel…over a bed of blue slate’ and is believed to be 500-million years old.
Despite its reputation, the Polish Hill Riesling is still amazing value, earning the title of ‘Best Value Winery in James Halliday’s Wine Companion 2018’. In addition to the riesling, Grosset produces a Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blend called Gaia, from its Gaia vineyard planted in 1986. The Adelaide Hills provide the fruit for the Grosset Pinot Noir, a light-to-medium-bodied wine that generally has a silky smooth texture and wonderful fruit intensity.
A behemoth of a state, South Australia is responsible for over 50% of Australia’s wine production. With the first known planting here taking place in 1836, local vintners have had time to truly perfect their art. In fact, SA is also home to some of the oldest Shiraz vines on the planet, with around 38% of SA’s old vines being Shiraz.
Such a large area means that the terrain, climate and soil profiles vary immensely between regions, allowing for a vast array of varieties to thrive. Some of South Australia’s premier wine regions include; Barossa Valley, Mclaren Vale, Clare Valley, Coonawarra and the Adelaide hills. Such a collection of prime wine regions has earned South Australia the grand title of Australia’s Wine Capital. But it doesn’t stop there, the prowess of SA wine producers mixed with fantastic growing conditions has garnered the state the privilege of being dubbed one of the 9 Great Wine Capitals of the World.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Europe was ravaged by an outbreak of Phylloxera, an aphid that injects a venom into the root of the vine while sucking out sap. The effect of the outbreak vastly influenced the global market. For example, France’s wine output decreased by over 40%, with the whole ordeal costing the country over 10 billion francs. Luckily for all, the grand ‘down-under’ remained a wine wonder, as the blight couldn’t take flight and reach the far away lands.