Last week I gurgled
Rieslings from the four Sevenhill sites, in an upland vale south-east of the
township of Clare. Moving a little further to the south from those
Sevenhill/Spring Farm Road vineyards, and a smidge east, we find the Paulett
family's vines in the very old rocks overlooking the weathered sediments of Polish
Valley, spilling down into that bonnie vale overlooking the entire Murray
Mallee.
A whole lifetime ago - in
1983 - I visited that lofty hill top with the winemaker Stephen Hickinbotham. He
had a vineyard and a winery on a volcano at Anakie near Geelong. He knew the
value of freaky high sites. Neil and Alison Paulett had just moved to those
North Mount Lofty Ranges near Clare from the Hunter Valley: I remember thinking
what a dramatic change that must have been for them. We stood gazing out over
the Mallee lands, wondering about the flavours their brave new site had to
offer. I remember joking that the next hill in that direction was in the Blue
Mountains, with the Hydro Majestic Hotel on the top. We waved.
There's a beautiful winery,
cafe and tasting complex on the Pauletts' hilltop now: perhaps the most
picturesque site in Australia. Neil and Alison's son Matt and his wife Ali are
now vital parts of the team; they have 25 hectares of vines on that ridge and
down towards the little Polish church and that intermittent trickle of a
'river' that flows north toward Burra and fizzles out on the flats.
When it rains.
Pauletts Rieslings have
always been classic Clare: all those lemons and limes and crunchy, austere
acidity. Their opening offer, the Paulett's
Polish Hill River Clare Valley Riesling 2015 ($23; 12.5% alcohol; screw cap) is typical of their consistent
style: all that bright citrus but with the beginnings of the more tropical
ly-chee and rambutan fruits found in the best of the Polish Valley vineyards.
There's also an ethereal waft of summer wheatfields in the glass, a smell I
often associate with some of the finest Chardonnay of Champagne.
The wine is not so much
raw lemon as some of the vineyards elsewhere in Clare: it has the complexity
and fleshy softness of Polish Valley, and then that bone dry finish typical of
the Rieslings of the rest of the region. Delicious!
In special years, they
release a true luxury: currently, it's the Pauletts
Antonina Premium Polish Hill River Riesling 2015 ($50; 12.5% alcohol; screw cap). This wine is made from the first
free run from the heart of the Polish Hill vineyard. It has everything I love
about the standard release, but with a more sultry, smoky bacon pudge atop all
that citrus. It also offers a faint waft of spice, like whole fresh nutmeg, or
maybe its skin, which we call mace.
The flavours are richer
and softer, and they seem to move into your mouth and settle there like they
own it, rather than pass through it and over it. While the standard wine is the
sort that seems hardly to settle in the icebucket and the damned thing's empty,
this is the one that makes you sit down and think and stare and ponder. It's a
profound, provocative mystery.
More frivolous, even
funny, is the old-fashioned Pauletts
Late Harvest Polish Hill River Riesling 2015 ($20; 11.5% alcohol; screw cap). Made after what we used to call
the spætlese style, it's been kept slightly
sweet. That extra dash of unfermented grape sugar seems to trap sweet honey florals
in the bouquet, and adds a slightly fluffy texture to the regular austerity of
the steely Riesling foundations.
If you're feeling
traditional and maybe a touch Polish or Silesian, this baby is perfect for
elevenses, with sweet white tea and apple streuselkuchen.
If it's dark and late, I'd take its straight to the local Thai, and have it chilled
with a table laden with chilli, garlic, galangal, coriander, lemon grass and
all those other lovely lift-me-ups. Rock
AND roll.
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