Magpie Hill Reserve Riesling 2024
The 2024 vintage produced a generous juicy palate of fresh lime, orange blossom and grapefruit pith with a line of mineral salinity and mouthwatering liveliness. 750ml
POMELO • KAFFIR LIME • ORANGE BLOSSOM
Accolades
95 points, The Real Review
Ranked #14 of 57 2024 Riesling from Australia
Pale straw-yellow in the glass, with a dried-floral bouquet which has elements of lemon pith and fresh green herbs (basil; parsley), while the palate is intense and reserved, balanced and dry, but also soft—and the acidity is not too in-your-face. However, as a young wine food would be highly recommended. And it will richly reward cellaring. Intense lime-juice in the long finish.
93 points, Halliday Wine Companion
Hand picked, chilled, pressed to stainless steel tank, fermented using selected yeast, left on lees for 2 months and bottled. It's got flavour and character, albeit a little diffuse in personality from this warmer, earlier vintage. That being said, lovely iterations of lemon-lime citrus, green apple, a whisper of ginger, some jasmine florals and a touch of exotic green tea character in there, too. The wine shows some decent intensity of grapefruity acidity, a freshening rod through more pulpy yet pleasing fruit character. The finish offers up some floral, yeasty notes that linger into biscuity layers of flavour. Lots of easy pleasure here.
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Halliday Top 5 Star Winery
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Appearance: pale straw, green edges, brilliant
Aroma: green lime blossom, green pineapple, green mango with hints of daffodil, granny smith apple sorbet, bay and sage leaf; powerful orange flower, hints of green papaya, opulent yet fresh and zippy
Palate: white nectarine, peach stone; elegant, long persistence, refined, yet filled out and powerfully present, expansive on fish yet neatly tucked together with whetstone steeliness, open weave yet tight
2024 will be remembered as one of the earliest on record, with our harvest all completed the day before we commenced in 2023! Warm temperatures in late September and October 2023 began to warm soils and accelerated budburst, canopy growth, and flowering, compressing the growing season. This, coupled with warm, dry conditions through February and March, resulted in great flavour and physiological (colour and tannin) ripening, delivering a harvest four weeks ahead of average.
We experienced heat spikes in late January and early February, with some days over 40C, reducing yields and concentrating fruit. With careful canopy management, judicious irrigation strategy, and removal of any substandard fruit, we were able to harvest fruit of exquisite balance and focus, offering intense aromatics, ripe flavours and powerful yet ripe tannins. A rare vintage of immediate deliciousness with a great potential for aging.
Beginning in late February (a month ahead of 2023), the grapes were meticulously hand-harvested, sorted in the early morning, and then delivered to the winery to be chilled overnight at 0C in a cool room. The fruit was whole bunch pressed in a tank press using a sparkling wine cycle with as few rotations as possible to minimise colour and skin tannin pick up. The free-run juice was kept separate from the pressings and fermented in stainless steel at 15C utilising a carefully selected aromatic yeast to preserve floral aromatics. The wine was then aged on lees (grape and yeast solids) for two months before being bottled in June. This was a warm drought year that produced wines of explosive intensity both on the nose and in the mouth yet retained the fresh mineral edge and vibrancy renown for the site. This resulted in a more open weave expression of Riesling yet still with the integrity to age for several decades. A remarkable vintage to behold.