98/100 James Halliday - Weekend Australian Magazine 97/100 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate 97/100 Rob Geddes MW 96/100 Mike Bennie - Halliday Wine Companion 96/100 Wine Enthusiast 96/100 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front 95/100 James Suckling 93/100 CellarTracker 97/100 Erin Larkin (Halliday) (2021 vintage) 96/100 Huon Hooke (2021 vintage) 98/100 Decanter (2020 vintage) 96/100 Jane Faulkner (Halliday) (2020 vintage) 96/100 Huon Hooke (2020 Vintage) 96/100 James Suckling (2020 vintage) 95/100 Ralph Kyte-Powell (2020 vintage) 96/100 Tyson Stelzer (2019 vintage) 96/100 Decanter (2019 vintage) 96/100 James Halliday (2019 vintage) 95/100 Huon Hooke (2019 vintage) 94/100 Jeremy Oliver (2019 vintage) 93/100 The Wine Front (2019 vintage) 93/100 Robert Parker (2019 vintage) 18/20 Jancis Robinson (2019 vintage)
Wines of Australia 2023 Top 100 Top 50 Australia's Most Collected Wines 2023 - Wine Ark Top 50 of Australia’s Most Collected wines for 2019 – #11 Top 5 Rieslings – #1 - Gourmet Traveller Wine Langton Classification VI: Rated ‘Exceptional’ Wine Ark: ‘Australia’s Most Collected Riesling’
Halliday's Top 100 - Weekend Australian Magazine "One of five Australian Rieslings listed (and one of just two from the Clare Valley), James Halliday has described this wine as ‘irresistible One of five Australian Rieslings listed (and one of just two from the Clare Valley), James Halliday has described this wine as ‘irresistible’!"
James Halliday - Weekend Australian Magazine "The cool, late vintage and reduced yield come together in a glorious riesling that is so delicious now it will be hard to give it the 10 or so years that will see it develop even more ravishing flavours and a lingering caress of silvery acidity."
Wine Advocate "The 2023 Polish Hill Riesling is utterly superb. It has the flesh and body that only the Clare can deliver; it is shaped by coiled acidity, and it ripples through the finish with unfettered fruit power. It's a glorious thing, this wine. It's looking precise, focused and floral through the lens of the 2023 season."
Rob Geddes MW "Polish Hill is the counterpoint to Spring Vale, where Watervale's lavish jonquil floral rose florals are countered with tense varietal purity of lime and lime blossom aromas and depth. Springvale has a remarkable ginger spice, a feature of the 23 vintage and is also recommended. The Polish Hill v23 wine has minerality and line typical of the region with excellent texture, flavour length, fruit weight and generosity with lavish fruit yet still focused and long with delicious flavour intensity and a slight firmness that augurs well for a long life."
Mike Bennie - Halliday Wine Companion "An outstanding release of this vaunted wine. It's intense, it's racy, it's complex and nuanced in its fruit, spice, mineral and subtle savoury elements, all of it woven into an extremely persistent and poised textural experience. There's stacks of flavour in all this, yet held within a tensile thrust of raciness and faint chalky pucker. And long, very long. One for the ages here."
Wine Enthusiast "2023 was a cool, late-ripening vintage in the Clare and the resulting wines are elegant and filigreed—approachable now, but with the structure and complexity to age for decades. Delicate aromas of lemon-lime, peach blossom, beeswax and lavender soap open. Like a soft hold of the hand, they lead gently to a pristine palate that's dry with high-toned fruit and prickly acidity. Texturally it feels both lightly creamy and chalky all at once."
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front "Grosset’s Polish Hill is renowned for its reserve, particularly on release, but this rendition has both its quality and its fruit intensity sitting front and centre. This really does announce itself. Flavours of lemon, lime, grapefruit, chalk and citrus blossom explode onto the palate in the most commanding and authoritative of ways, and then extend (mighty) lengthily through the finish. It’s a lay down misére. It’s scented, intense and sustained. It’s a wine of great beauty."
James Sucklng "Subdued aromas of talc, chalk, orchard fruits, tatami straw, finger lime and fresh lemonade. Dry and tightly furled to a point that verges on severity. There is bountiful extract that pummels the cheeks and stains the palate, suggestive of a bright future despite the unyielding youthfulness now. From biodynamically grown grapes."
Erin Larkin "This wine retains the energy and drive of Polish Hill, yet its fruit concentration and ripeness has softened out any hard edges. It's beautifully fragrant, subtle even, and the palate is long and pure with pith-like texture and excellent length. Lovely drink and ready now." (2021 vintage)
Huon Hooke "Very light-yellow colour with a trace of green in the tint. The aroma is ethereal and perfumed, summoning lime leaf and lemon zest, the palate adding a touch of baked lemon pudding, while the finish is long and full and underlined by a trace of grip which adds structure. A powerful young riesling, and very stylish." (2021 vintage)
Decanter "The clean, fresh aromas of just-picked citrus fruits belie the enormous power of lime juice and rich lemon pith that immediately fills the front palate on this latest vintage. There’s poise in addition to the power though, with multiple layers of rounded citrus and mineral flavours enjoying a luxurious textural roll through the mid-palate. Perfect integration of fresh citric acid carries the pure fruit qualities through extraordinary length to a crisp, lip-smacking finish." (2020 Vintage)
Jane Faulkner (Halliday) "This wine retains the energy and drive of Polish Hill, yet its fruit concentration and ripeness has softened out any hard edges. It's beautifully fragrant, subtle even, and the palate is long and pure with pith-like texture and excellent length. Lovely drink and ready now." (2020 Vintage)
Huon Hooke "Light, bright yellow hue. Reserved, discreet, subtly yeasty aromas, bright and clean and scented with dried flowers. It's very intense in the mouth, showing concentration and drive, the juicy fruit of the fore-palate morphing into a firm, dry back-palate and a long tail. An excellent wine, of superior fruit intensity and persistence. Great cellaring potential " (2020 Vintage)
James Suckling "Stony and mineral character here with a spicy, wet-stone nose and a wealth of lime and light peach, as well as talcum powder. Chiseled palate with linear acidity and drive. Fresh, long and quite expressive already. Has the potential to improve in bottle as well. Drink or hold. Screw cap." (2020 Vintage)
Ralph Kyte-Powell "The colour is pale straw with a greenish tinge and the nose offers concentration that sets it apart from most peers. Aromas of lime sherbet, pineapple, spice, musky florals and steel seem riper and richer than usual, and the palate follows suit with great depth and minerally power, tingly acid backbone, firm structure and lingering finish. It will no doubt build more complexity in bottle, but it may be a Polish Hill to drink a little earlier than many previous vintages." (2020 Vintage)
Tyson Stelzer "Such is Jeffrey Grosset’s precise and refined approach that even a dry, low-yielding season has done nothing to thwart the ethereal fragrance, breathtaking purity, green-tinted energy, scintillating acidity, inimitable slate texture and impeccable phenolic delicacy of the phenomenal site. This is a vintage of fantastic concentration, heightened character and enticing jubilation." (2019 Vintage)
Decanter "More intense than many young Polish Hill Rieslings, this 2019 retains great poise and shape within its rich frame. Floral notes abound – violets and lavender, lemon and lime blossom – and such a heady perfume points towards a similarly rich palate. Intense juicy lime is carried on a tight acid spine that also bears mineral notes of shale and schist. Complex yet crisp and very persistent." (2019 Vintage)
James Halliday "The sails of the ship are still tightly furled, but the length and balance will stand the wine well as it ages (for decades) elaborating on the flavours of the Polish Hill River district as it always does." (2019 Vintage)
Campbell Mattinson "Super dry. Super minerally. Excellent intensity. Purity, absolutely. Hay, wheat, lime, flowery apples and talc, and of course that quartz-like quality. It’s tight through the finish, to the point where it doesn’t quite feel as long as it should; it will relax in time, and all will be sorted.” (2019 Vintage)
Huon Hooke "This is typical Polish: a style that will reward cellaring, but gives plenty of pleasure now. The aroma is very refined, restrained and intense, with an array of floral aromas, from fresh flowers to dried wildflowers and potpourri. Lemon pith, too. Intense yet restrained." (2019 Vintage)
Jancis Robinson "Subtle and layered. Really exciting already because of the density. Tense but the fruit extract means you could actually drink it now." (2019 Vintage)
Robert Parker "The 2019 Polish Hill Riesling boasts hints of baby powder and lime alongside green apple and mint on the nose. It's medium-bodied, with a pristine, almost watery feel on the palate, but it simultaneously delivers fascinating intensity of flavor and tremendous length, with a gentle, softly dusty texture on the finish. It should easily cellar for more than a decade." (2019 Vintage)
Decanter Magazine ~ The World’s Top 10 White Winemakers #6 Jeffrey Grosset
"When the young Jeffrey Grosset launched his own winery in the Clare Valley in the early 1980’s, he was swimming against the tide. Back then, Chardonnay was the rising star of Australian Wine. But Grosset wanted to make Riesling, and to focus on letting the grapes speak for themselves. The rest of the Australian wine industry has, of course, caught up with Grosset since, thanks in part to the example set by this focused, restlessly intelligent winemaker. By consistently producing arguably Australia’s two best Rieslings – the flowery, lime-rich Watervale and the steely, firm Polish Hill – Grosset has not only helped steer the reversal in this variety’s fortunes, but has provided one of the country’s most powerful arguments in favour of the reality of terroir"
Grosset Wines are an independently owned winery producing highly regarded premium wines. Established in 1981, the winery is situated in the historic township of Auburn at the southern tip of the Clare Valley, 100 kilometres north of Adelaide.
Jeffrey Grosset, owner and founder, has always been an innovator, challenging tradition and questioning accepted practices. He campaigned to institute the legal integrity of the Riesling grape in Australia, was a leading proponent for the introduction of screwcap closures and privately funded research into the subject.
Grosset Wines’ philosophy has remained steadfast over thirty years. The emphasis is on purity of fruit. The estate vineyards, which are ACO certified organic, are hand tended and each bunch of grapes is harvested at optimum ripeness.
The winemaking process is gentle and uncomplicated. With dedication, discipline and the application of knowledge garnered through decades of experience, the result is the finest expression of variety and place.
Clare Valley is the northernmost wine region within the Mount Lofty Ranges zone of South Australia, located 81 miles (130km) north of the state capital, Adelaide. It is one of the most picturesque wine regions of Australia, with a tradition in winemaking going back to the early 19th century when the first vines were planted. Riesling reigns supreme in Clare Valley. The drier styles are recognized as some of the best in the world.
Riesling is a light-skinned, aromatic grape of German origin which is – if the majority of top wine critics are to be believed – the world's finest white wine grape variety. The Riesling vine holds a very different place in the wine world to such great grapes as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Chardonnay. While these immensely popular varieties have conquered every corner of the winegrowing world, Riesling is conspicuously absent from the core wine regions of France, Spain and Italy. Riesling's home is the regions that trace the middle Rhine and the lower Mosel, two of Europe's great wine rivers.
98/100 James Halliday - Weekend Australian Magazine 97/100 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate 97/100 Rob Geddes MW 96/100 Mike Bennie - Halliday Wine Companion 96/100 Wine Enthusiast 96/100 Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front 95/100 James Suckling 93/100 CellarTracker 97/100 Erin Larkin (Halliday) (2021 vintage) 96/100 Huon Hooke (2021 vintage) 98/100 Decanter (2020 vintage) 96/100 Jane Faulkner (Halliday) (2020 vintage) 96/100 Huon Hooke (2020 Vintage) 96/100 James Suckling (2020 vintage) 95/100 Ralph Kyte-Powell (2020 vintage) 96/100 Tyson Stelzer (2019 vintage) 96/100 Decanter (2019 vintage) 96/100 James Halliday (2019 vintage) 95/100 Huon Hooke (2019 vintage) 94/100 Jeremy Oliver (2019 vintage) 93/100 The Wine Front (2019 vintage) 93/100 Robert Parker (2019 vintage) 18/20 Jancis Robinson (2019 vintage)
Wines of Australia 2023 Top 100 Top 50 Australia's Most Collected Wines 2023 - Wine Ark Top 50 of Australia’s Most Collected wines for 2019 – #11 Top 5 Rieslings – #1 - Gourmet Traveller Wine Langton Classification VI: Rated ‘Exceptional’ Wine Ark: ‘Australia’s Most Collected Riesling’
Halliday's Top 100 - Weekend Australian Magazine "One of five Australian Rieslings listed (and one of just two from the Clare Valley), James Halliday has described this wine as ‘irresistible One of five Australian Rieslings listed (and one of just two from the Clare Valley), James Halliday has described this wine as ‘irresistible’!"
James Halliday - Weekend Australian Magazine "The cool, late vintage and reduced yield come together in a glorious riesling that is so delicious now it will be hard to give it the 10 or so years that will see it develop even more ravishing flavours and a lingering caress of silvery acidity."
Wine Advocate "The 2023 Polish Hill Riesling is utterly superb. It has the flesh and body that only the Clare can deliver; it is shaped by coiled acidity, and it ripples through the finish with unfettered fruit power. It's a glorious thing, this wine. It's looking precise, focused and floral through the lens of the 2023 season."
Rob Geddes MW "Polish Hill is the counterpoint to Spring Vale, where Watervale's lavish jonquil floral rose florals are countered with tense varietal purity of lime and lime blossom aromas and depth. Springvale has a remarkable ginger spice, a feature of the 23 vintage and is also recommended. The Polish Hill v23 wine has minerality and line typical of the region with excellent texture, flavour length, fruit weight and generosity with lavish fruit yet still focused and long with delicious flavour intensity and a slight firmness that augurs well for a long life."
Mike Bennie - Halliday Wine Companion "An outstanding release of this vaunted wine. It's intense, it's racy, it's complex and nuanced in its fruit, spice, mineral and subtle savoury elements, all of it woven into an extremely persistent and poised textural experience. There's stacks of flavour in all this, yet held within a tensile thrust of raciness and faint chalky pucker. And long, very long. One for the ages here."
Wine Enthusiast "2023 was a cool, late-ripening vintage in the Clare and the resulting wines are elegant and filigreed—approachable now, but with the structure and complexity to age for decades. Delicate aromas of lemon-lime, peach blossom, beeswax and lavender soap open. Like a soft hold of the hand, they lead gently to a pristine palate that's dry with high-toned fruit and prickly acidity. Texturally it feels both lightly creamy and chalky all at once."
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front "Grosset’s Polish Hill is renowned for its reserve, particularly on release, but this rendition has both its quality and its fruit intensity sitting front and centre. This really does announce itself. Flavours of lemon, lime, grapefruit, chalk and citrus blossom explode onto the palate in the most commanding and authoritative of ways, and then extend (mighty) lengthily through the finish. It’s a lay down misére. It’s scented, intense and sustained. It’s a wine of great beauty."
James Sucklng "Subdued aromas of talc, chalk, orchard fruits, tatami straw, finger lime and fresh lemonade. Dry and tightly furled to a point that verges on severity. There is bountiful extract that pummels the cheeks and stains the palate, suggestive of a bright future despite the unyielding youthfulness now. From biodynamically grown grapes."
Erin Larkin "This wine retains the energy and drive of Polish Hill, yet its fruit concentration and ripeness has softened out any hard edges. It's beautifully fragrant, subtle even, and the palate is long and pure with pith-like texture and excellent length. Lovely drink and ready now." (2021 vintage)
Huon Hooke "Very light-yellow colour with a trace of green in the tint. The aroma is ethereal and perfumed, summoning lime leaf and lemon zest, the palate adding a touch of baked lemon pudding, while the finish is long and full and underlined by a trace of grip which adds structure. A powerful young riesling, and very stylish." (2021 vintage)
Decanter "The clean, fresh aromas of just-picked citrus fruits belie the enormous power of lime juice and rich lemon pith that immediately fills the front palate on this latest vintage. There’s poise in addition to the power though, with multiple layers of rounded citrus and mineral flavours enjoying a luxurious textural roll through the mid-palate. Perfect integration of fresh citric acid carries the pure fruit qualities through extraordinary length to a crisp, lip-smacking finish." (2020 Vintage)
Jane Faulkner (Halliday) "This wine retains the energy and drive of Polish Hill, yet its fruit concentration and ripeness has softened out any hard edges. It's beautifully fragrant, subtle even, and the palate is long and pure with pith-like texture and excellent length. Lovely drink and ready now." (2020 Vintage)
Huon Hooke "Light, bright yellow hue. Reserved, discreet, subtly yeasty aromas, bright and clean and scented with dried flowers. It's very intense in the mouth, showing concentration and drive, the juicy fruit of the fore-palate morphing into a firm, dry back-palate and a long tail. An excellent wine, of superior fruit intensity and persistence. Great cellaring potential " (2020 Vintage)
James Suckling "Stony and mineral character here with a spicy, wet-stone nose and a wealth of lime and light peach, as well as talcum powder. Chiseled palate with linear acidity and drive. Fresh, long and quite expressive already. Has the potential to improve in bottle as well. Drink or hold. Screw cap." (2020 Vintage)
Ralph Kyte-Powell "The colour is pale straw with a greenish tinge and the nose offers concentration that sets it apart from most peers. Aromas of lime sherbet, pineapple, spice, musky florals and steel seem riper and richer than usual, and the palate follows suit with great depth and minerally power, tingly acid backbone, firm structure and lingering finish. It will no doubt build more complexity in bottle, but it may be a Polish Hill to drink a little earlier than many previous vintages." (2020 Vintage)
Tyson Stelzer "Such is Jeffrey Grosset’s precise and refined approach that even a dry, low-yielding season has done nothing to thwart the ethereal fragrance, breathtaking purity, green-tinted energy, scintillating acidity, inimitable slate texture and impeccable phenolic delicacy of the phenomenal site. This is a vintage of fantastic concentration, heightened character and enticing jubilation." (2019 Vintage)
Decanter "More intense than many young Polish Hill Rieslings, this 2019 retains great poise and shape within its rich frame. Floral notes abound – violets and lavender, lemon and lime blossom – and such a heady perfume points towards a similarly rich palate. Intense juicy lime is carried on a tight acid spine that also bears mineral notes of shale and schist. Complex yet crisp and very persistent." (2019 Vintage)
James Halliday "The sails of the ship are still tightly furled, but the length and balance will stand the wine well as it ages (for decades) elaborating on the flavours of the Polish Hill River district as it always does." (2019 Vintage)
Campbell Mattinson "Super dry. Super minerally. Excellent intensity. Purity, absolutely. Hay, wheat, lime, flowery apples and talc, and of course that quartz-like quality. It’s tight through the finish, to the point where it doesn’t quite feel as long as it should; it will relax in time, and all will be sorted.” (2019 Vintage)
Huon Hooke "This is typical Polish: a style that will reward cellaring, but gives plenty of pleasure now. The aroma is very refined, restrained and intense, with an array of floral aromas, from fresh flowers to dried wildflowers and potpourri. Lemon pith, too. Intense yet restrained." (2019 Vintage)
Jancis Robinson "Subtle and layered. Really exciting already because of the density. Tense but the fruit extract means you could actually drink it now." (2019 Vintage)
Robert Parker "The 2019 Polish Hill Riesling boasts hints of baby powder and lime alongside green apple and mint on the nose. It's medium-bodied, with a pristine, almost watery feel on the palate, but it simultaneously delivers fascinating intensity of flavor and tremendous length, with a gentle, softly dusty texture on the finish. It should easily cellar for more than a decade." (2019 Vintage)
Decanter Magazine ~ The World’s Top 10 White Winemakers #6 Jeffrey Grosset
"When the young Jeffrey Grosset launched his own winery in the Clare Valley in the early 1980’s, he was swimming against the tide. Back then, Chardonnay was the rising star of Australian Wine. But Grosset wanted to make Riesling, and to focus on letting the grapes speak for themselves. The rest of the Australian wine industry has, of course, caught up with Grosset since, thanks in part to the example set by this focused, restlessly intelligent winemaker. By consistently producing arguably Australia’s two best Rieslings – the flowery, lime-rich Watervale and the steely, firm Polish Hill – Grosset has not only helped steer the reversal in this variety’s fortunes, but has provided one of the country’s most powerful arguments in favour of the reality of terroir"
Grosset Wines are an independently owned winery producing highly regarded premium wines. Established in 1981, the winery is situated in the historic township of Auburn at the southern tip of the Clare Valley, 100 kilometres north of Adelaide.
Jeffrey Grosset, owner and founder, has always been an innovator, challenging tradition and questioning accepted practices. He campaigned to institute the legal integrity of the Riesling grape in Australia, was a leading proponent for the introduction of screwcap closures and privately funded research into the subject.
Grosset Wines’ philosophy has remained steadfast over thirty years. The emphasis is on purity of fruit. The estate vineyards, which are ACO certified organic, are hand tended and each bunch of grapes is harvested at optimum ripeness.
The winemaking process is gentle and uncomplicated. With dedication, discipline and the application of knowledge garnered through decades of experience, the result is the finest expression of variety and place.
Clare Valley is the northernmost wine region within the Mount Lofty Ranges zone of South Australia, located 81 miles (130km) north of the state capital, Adelaide. It is one of the most picturesque wine regions of Australia, with a tradition in winemaking going back to the early 19th century when the first vines were planted. Riesling reigns supreme in Clare Valley. The drier styles are recognized as some of the best in the world.
Riesling is a light-skinned, aromatic grape of German origin which is – if the majority of top wine critics are to be believed – the world's finest white wine grape variety. The Riesling vine holds a very different place in the wine world to such great grapes as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Chardonnay. While these immensely popular varieties have conquered every corner of the winegrowing world, Riesling is conspicuously absent from the core wine regions of France, Spain and Italy. Riesling's home is the regions that trace the middle Rhine and the lower Mosel, two of Europe's great wine rivers.
