HEAD Wines Riesling 2024 11% 750ml

HEAD Wines Riesling 2024 11% 750ml

Tasting Notes

Appearance
Pale straw in the glass.

Palate
The wine shows powerful fruit and texture with citrus, lemon and grapefuit together with a textural, minerally and relatively dry finish.

Region notes
The fruit for this wine is sourced from the ‘Trial Hill’ vineyard near Pewsey Vale where owner Joel Mattschoss farms the land. The vines are North-East facing, sit at 450-470m altitude, are approximately 80 years old and are dry grown on a 1.8 hectare terraced & contoured site. The soils are grey- brown skeletal soils from parent quartzites & mica schists.

Food matching
Drink with roast chicken or fish with white sauce.

Vinification
The fruit is hand-picked and whole bunch pressed then fermented in stainless steel with a small amount of residual sugar remaining in the wine offsetting the acidity.

Vintage notes
We have been incredibly lucky with Rieslings vintages from Eden Valley over the last 4 years. The weather has been mild and the lack of heat stress events has helped with retention of acidity and given long, slow ripening for complexity. 2024 is the last of four ‘La Nina’ (mild) years in a row for Australia.

Grape variety
100% Riesling

PH
2.96

Acidity
7.0/L

Expert Reviews

Ken Gargett

95 Pointsout of 100.
The fruit here is sourced from the Trial Hill Vineyard near Pewsey Vale in the Eden Valley, at the relatively high altitude of around 460 metres. The site, 1.8 hectares, is terraced and contoured, and the vines are around 80 years of age. Fermentation was in stainless steel, after which the wine spent three months on lees. Just 300 dozen made. 2024 is a cracking vintage for the region and this is ridiculously good value. The colour is the very palest lemon hue one could imagine. Opening notes reveal the chalk and minerality supporting the wine, with the limes and sea spray notes overlaid. This is delicate and fragrant, focused and offering good underlying intensity. There is juicy acidity and we see the emergence of hints of mango and grapefruit on the palate. There is unwavering balance and excellent length. A classic and classically beautiful Riesling with fifteen to eighteen years of pleasure ahead. If Alex Head is regularly making Riesling of this sublime quality, it won’t be long before he is mentioned in the same dispatches as some very highly regarded producers.
Wine Pilot6 June 2025