Pikes The Merle Clare Valley Riesling 2023

The Pike family’s flagship Riesling is all class, especially so when sourced from a fab vintage. Impressive seamless balance on display here, not to mention, attention to detail. Lifted aromatics in apple and spring blossom with concentrated lemon and lime, green apple, slate and irresistibly tangy lemon sorbet. The Merle’s history tells us it is a strong candidate for not just immediate drinking but for future enjoyment. Acidity is the key, the kind of acidity that is pretty brisk in the wine’s youth but can be counted on for longevity. It’s far from austere or aggressive, but it is noted. It is also surrounded by enlivening citrus, apple and light herbal flavours and supported by middle palate texture. The wine runs in a strong linear progression, composed, sleek, dry and juicy through to the finish . . mouthwateringly, so.

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