10 Great Southern Wines to Try
Decanter
September 1, 2015
Australia’s largest wine region is finally being appreciated for its diversity of varieties, climates and soils, as well as its focus on single-vineyard wines. Sarah Ahmed picks the 10 top wines to try.
Great Southern’s ‘very promising potential’ was orginally spotted by Dr Harold Olmo, visiting professor of viticulture from The University of California, in 1955.Very sparsely populated in the 1950s, the focus was still on farming and forestry and the first vineyard was not planted until 1965; its first commercial wine, made by Plantagenet, emerged in 1975.
However, 60 years after Olmo highlighted Great Southern’s suitability for ‘high-quality light table wines’, Western Australia’s coolest wine region is edging into the limelight. With a strong focus on single-vineyard wines, producers are taking a terrior-driven approach, often looking beyond their own vineyards and sub-regions to secure the best grapes from the best sites for their single-vineyard ranges.
Plantagenet 2006 Riesling (Museum Release)
Though developing honey and petrol notes, with great mineral acid drive, its lime and lemon fruit remains well-focused. Very pure; bone dry.