Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling 2022

The easy bit is to talk about the complexity, precision, the inherent power and confidence that resides in the 2022 Isolation Ridge Riesling. The hard bit is to explain why. The 2022 vintage was cool-ish and winemaker, Hunter Smith, talks of “extended hang time” on the vine for the fruit. The Smith family has also been working on building in texture and added presence in recent years in the form of picking riper fruit, nine months on lees and around eight per cent of wine now sees time in oak. Every little one per center comes together in the glass. Striking citrus notes, green apple, preserved lemon, leaf aromas mix with lifted honeysuckle florals. At first, it appears fine-boned, but then it builds in presence, depth, texture and tension. The drinker becomes mere putty under its spell. You can’t talk about the wine without reference to the acidity which both glides and provides real tension – and interest – as it brings together all the elements, while standing out as a true, attractive feature. In the immediate future it will bring tangy acid drive; in the long-term that acidity will contribute considerable age worthiness.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic