O’Leary Walker Polish Hill River Riesling 2021

If the Watervale sub-region brings elegance and beauty to the riesling grape, Polish Hill River brings über spice and an almost nervous tension or coiled energy. Both characters are fast out of the blocks and raring to go in the 2021 O’Leary Walker Polish Hill River. Granny Smith apple, lime, fennel and herbal notes across the bouquet. Fasten your seatbelt for a brisk, wild ride. It hits the palate at pace accentuated by taut, crunchy acidity and a pure line of green apple, grapefruit juiciness, spice and nougat. Writers often refer to a “surge of electricity” with Polish Hill River Riesling. It’s here all right, but while the structure is tight, the fruit is also tight. This is a wine with time on its mind. Give it years in bottle and you will be rewarded.

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