Isolation Ridge Riesling

The majority of the wine fermented in stainless steel with 5% barrel-fermented Riesling from our Outback and North Pole blocks. All components were kept on their lees for eight months before bottling for additional texture and complexity. As always, spectacular fruit came off our old-vine (1988 plantings) Olive, Pole and Outback blocks, containing both the Geisenheim clone and Houghton’s WA heritage clone. The Isolation Ridge Riesling is always the best wine we can produce from our vineyard in any given year. Yields were low in 2024, so the total make was reduced by 25%.

Citrus blossom, wet stone and smoky talc notes waft over a particularly wide spread of fruits: red apple, corella pear, lemon, kaffir lime, tangerine and grapefruit into nectarine. It’s zesty and tight on entry, a wash of pure fruit given a bracingly refreshing edge by pleasantly sour fresh citrus juices and a hint of lemongrass. It has crystalline juiciness with a clear, precise saline bead of acidity. There’s an edgy purity to the medium-bodied palate, then that stony length—channelled arrow- like—with a deceptive power and texture to the fruit. There’s a nice, skinsy-like bitterness too; a splash of tonic, lime and mandarin with a sprig of herb on the long finale.

- FRANKLAND ESTATE