Grounds for Celebration
An eerie familiarity filled the air when Tim McNeil’s 2010 Riesling made its first public appearance during Clare Riesling seminar. How could the first vintage ever made possess such strong echoes of wines the audience had tasted many times before? McNeil spilled the secret: his vineyard occupies a privileged position in line with Grosset’s fabled Springvale vineyard, Knappstein’s legendary Ackland and the famed Mount Horrocks on the finest soils of Watervale.
There’s nothing unusual about the voice of the soil singing out above the melody of the maker. In the most revered vineyards of Burgundy, Alsace, Champagne and across Germany, the fruits of adjacent sites are often destined for different labels and a single vineyard might be shared by dozens or even hundreds of makers. These are the legendary grand crus of Europe, vineyards with names more renowned even than the historic estates that tend them.
Australia has no such classification of vineyards, but the voice of the lace speaks just as articulately in our sites as it does in Europe’s. If Watervale were to name a grand cru, McNeil’s vineyard would surely be part of it. Each of these Rieslings carries a unique fruit profile, but the voice of the site speaks in deeper tones of inherent texture, chalky minerality and lingering persistence of flavour.”
Tyson Stelzer Qantas Magazine June 2012