Grosset Riesling Polish Hill 2025
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The Land
Australian Riesling is bone dry and built on acid, not sunshine, which is the opposite of what most drinkers expect from South Australia. Clare Valley, roughly two hours north of Adelaide in the Mount Lofty Ranges, is where that style is most fully worked out, and the Polish Hill River sub-region is its austere end. Grosset's eight-hectare Polish Hill vineyard, selected and planted by Jeffrey Grosset in 1996, is what he calls a "hard rock" site: thin silt and shallow shales over a crust of clay and gravel, sitting on blue slate roughly 500 million years old. There is barely enough soil to sustain a vine. Bunches come in small, berries smaller. Grosset's other Riesling site, Springvale at Watervale, is 5.3 hectares of red loam over limestone and gives a rounder, fleshier wine. Slate against limestone is the whole difference between the two.
The Wine
Riesling from three close-planted clones at Polish Hill, two German selections and one rare local variety, with each vine yielding about two bottles. Bone dry, bottled unfined under screwcap. The 2025 season in Clare ran warm, sunny and severely dry; Grosset reported a small harvest of pristine fruit and credited biodynamic farming for how the vineyards held through the drought, and that concentration shows. Lime blossom, white rose, grapefruit zest and crushed slate come first, then lime juice, mandarin oil and green apple skin arrive over a chalky phenolic grip that tightens the middle. The finish runs long, dry and faintly saline, more mineral than fruit. Young, it is electric and a little severe. Grosset puts the drinking window at anywhere from tonight to twenty years out.
The People
Jeffrey Grosset started his winery in Auburn in 1981 and has spent forty-five years arguing that great wine begins with choosing the right piece of ground. He is also responsible for one of the most consequential technical decisions in modern wine. In 2000, tired of cork taint ruining bottles built to age, he organized a group of Clare Valley producers to import screwcaps from France and seal their entire Riesling vintage under them. Drinkers responded to the freshness, other regions followed, and within a generation screwcap became the default closure for Australian and New Zealand whites. He still privately funds research comparing closures. The vineyards and winery are A-Grade Certified Organic and Biodynamic through Australian Certified Organic. Polish Hill is the reference point for dry Riesling in the Southern Hemisphere.
Food Pairing
Pour it with grilled prawns dressed in nothing but lemon and olive oil, where the wine's acid does the work a squeeze of citrus would. Seared scallops with brown butter and capers work because the salinity in the wine meets the salt in the capers. Steamed Dungeness crab with drawn butter is a straight trade of richness for cut. For something less fussy, try a Thai green papaya salad with dried shrimp and chili, since bone-dry Riesling handles chili heat better than almost anything else in the shop. This is the bottle for the night you want dinner to taste sharper than usual.
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South Australia is home to many of the country’s most famous wine regions and accounts for nearly half of Australia’s total wine production. The Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale are known for their warm climates and powerful Shiraz, Grenache, and Cabernet Sauvignon, often grown on ancient soils. Clare Valley and Eden Valley offer cooler conditions at higher elevations, producing intensely aromatic Riesling and finely structured Shiraz. The Adelaide Hills, with its cool nights and varied aspects, excels with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. Coonawarra, farther south, is famous for Cabernet Sauvignon grown on its distinctive terra rossa soils over limestone.
Australia - South Australia
Riesling is a truly noble grape, known for its incredibly high acidity and a flavor profile that can range from bone dry to lusciously sweet. Germany is its heartland, and it's responsible for some of the world's most age-worthy examples, but Riesling also thrives in Austria, where it usually is dry. In Alsace, it takes on a slightly richer texture, while in parts of Australia, like the Clare and Eden Valleys, it displays a uniquely powerful and lime-tinged aromatic profile. This is a grape that has no problem showcasing its origins, and it's a fantastic example of how one variety can show many different expressions, each with its own unique appeal.
