O’Leary Walker Doctor’s Cut Reserve Riesling 2022
- 95
- $40
- Drink by: 2023-2036
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No surprises to see Doctor’s Cut – a Riesling only made, according to the maker, in “exceptional” years – coming from the superlative 2022 vintage in the Clare Valley. It’s the vintage that keeps on giving some truly memorable wines, Rieslings in particular. Fruit for the Doctor’s Cut comes off an organic vineyard in the Polish Hill River sub-region owned by two Adelaide heart surgeons. In its just-bottled youth, it’s a quiet starter that values some air time. This won’t last long, but right now it allows the wine to open and expand. You’ll want to experience what follows. Polish River’s noted spice and intense fragrance immediately come into frame with apple blossom, spring flowers, citrus peel, green apple and lemongrass – a heady start. Tangy citrussy acidity rules and brings incredible energy to this wine. It will also see it on a long journey into the future. To taste, tart grapefruit pith chimes in with quince, citrus, apple and a layer of enduring spice and lemongrass in tandem with fine crystalline minerality. This is what Polish Hill River does best, it brings its signature tension, minerality and spice to Clare rResling and it’s all the better for it. Stunning.
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.
