The Grosset 'Springvale' Watervale Riesling is poised to emerge from the illustrious shadow of Jeffrey Grosset's justly famous Polish Hill Riesling as both wines celebrate twenty-seven vintages of quality production from the two very different but now 100 per cent Grosset-owned vineyards.
Located in the north-eastern corner of the Clare Valley 's Watervale subregion and at its highest point, the Grosset Springvale vineyard has a thin crust of topsoil over a soft limestone base. Dark grey slate and slaty siltstone of the Mintaro Shale - about 750-800 million years old - underlie the area. The Springvale vineyard is a place of abundance and flavour. This should come as no surprise since Grosset's exhaustive research of viticultural potential and his meticulous care with the choice of the very earth itself was as geologically sophisticated and acute twenty-five years ago as it is now.
At the Grosset Springvale vineyard, rich red soil over limestone produces sturdy vines, big berries, chunky bunches and a lime green fruit. One hundred per cent hand-picked, the grapes are bigger than those on the Polish Hill vines and offer a generous, fruity bursting taste. In its full ripeness on the eve of picking, the vineyard presents a thick, undulating prospect of green - grapes and vines giving a sense of plenty and of flavours ready to burgeon.
In some ways, these characteristics of soil and vines preview the nature of the wine that comes from this vineyard: dry with a mineral edge, savoury, yet with a noticeable fullness and richness and pronounced riesling fruit flavour. The first taste is like biting into a grape.
As he celebrates its thirtieth vintage in 2010, Jeffrey Grosset confidently expects the 'Springvale' Watervale Riesling to become a wine of comparable stature to his Polish Hill. According to Langton's Australian Fine Wine Guide, 'The Watervale Riesling is a classic Clare style. If Polish Hill is power and intensity, Watervale is restraint and pure fruit. It evokes the expectation of a mouth-watering palate and delivers it.
