All roads led to Richmond this past week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At least, that's how it seemed to the hordes of Tasmanian wine lovers who made the journey to Pooley Wines to purchase the last remaining stocks of 2020 Margaret Pooley Tribute Single Vineyard Riesling.
Few appeared put off by the six-bottle purchase limit and $75 sticker price for each of these 750ml Riesling masterpieces.
Bottles sold like hot cakes.
In next to no time, the sales frenzy was over.
Being named Australia's best Riesling producer by the country's most respected wine publication had worked its magic for the Pooleys - and deservedly so.
"We were stoked," said a beaming Matt Pooley on learning the 2022 Halliday Wine Companion tasting panel had selected his family's flagship as its Riesling of the year.
Their deliberations on some 3200 wines are crammed into a new, 760-page tome that went on sale on August 13.
The identities of its 17 top rated wines - together with seven major category winners - were live streamed some 12 hours ahead of the book's first over-the-counter sales.
"We're very appreciative of the recognition given to the great Riesling variety, to the region and to the rest of the team," Pooley added.
Pooley's sister Anna and brother-in-law Justin Bubb made the wine.
It's sourced entirely from a small plot of vines grown at the family's Cooinda Vale property, located just north of Campania in the Coal River Valley.
According to Halliday Wine Companion chief editor Tyson Stelzer, the panel's shortlist of best Rieslings comprised 40 wines this year.
The variety's traditional strongholds dominated the category - Great Southern (WA), Clare Valley (SA) and Eden Valley (SA).
"With just two inclusions in our top 40 (both from Pooley), Tasmania was the surprise dark horse that swept in from the sidelines with a convincing win for Riesling of the Year," Stelzer noted.
"On sheer numbers, Riesling again ranks behind only Shiraz, Chardonnay and Cabernet as the strongest category in the country - proof again that we all ought to be drinking more of this sublime variety."
Indeed, we should.
The Pooley family makes top-notch Riesling with unerring consistency.
Back in June, Sydney wine judge and critic Huon Hooke announced The Real Review Top 52 Wineries of Australia 2021.
Pooley Wines was ranked Number 9.
The aforementioned 2020 Margaret Pooley Tribute wine was ranked #1 of the 96 Rieslings from the 2020 vintage reviewed during the past year.
It was a noteworthy achievement, no less significant than that announced by the Halliday Wine Companion.
The Real Review is a subscription-based digital platform that has more than one million users per year (Roy Morgan, December 2020).
Hooke and New Zealand Master of Wine Bob Campbell founded the company in 2016, along with Sydney wine technology outfit, Corkscore.
There's no doubt the former family matriarch would be greatly chuffed by the extraordinary quality and success of the special limited release that bears her name.
The family presented the tenacious little Scotswoman with the first vintage of Tribute Riesling on her 90th birthday.
When Margaret and husband Denis Pooley established their tiny hobby vineyard in 1985, the couple were already retirees.
Margaret was a sprightly 70 years of age; Denis some six years older.
The state's cool climate wine industry was then in its infancy.
Tasmania's Department of Primary Industry did not begin keeping vintage data until the year after the couple planted their 861 vines of Riesling and Pinot Noir.
By then, there were just 47 hectares of bearing vines dotted across our landscapes.
Vintage 1986 produced 154 tonnes of wine grapes, roughly a tenth of the production of today's 300 or so vineyards.
"People thought we'd gone mad," Margaret chuckled when your columnist first spoke with her in 1996.
"I think a lot of people were a wee bit envious at the time. The family thought it was a marvellous idea. Cooinda Vale had just been purchased and our little house was only five years old. There was no garden or vineyard. Denis felt it would be a good place to grow vines. We got cuttings from Peter McKay at Pembroke and away we went."
When Denis died in 1994, Margaret continued on as resident manager of the property until her death in 2010.
Today, son John and his family continue that remarkable legacy, with Pooley wine production having expanded to two separate vineyard sites totalling 20ha.
The ongoing commitment to quality viticulture and winemaking is unrivalled - perhaps enough to make a few more people 'a wee bit envious.'
From little things big things grow.
PICK OF THE CROP
2020 Pooley Riesling $36
Before returning to the family fold from the Barossa Valley, Anna Pooley worked a vintage at Salomon Undhof, one of Austria's oldest wineries.
The 2010 Australian Young Winemaker of the Year learned a lot about making world-class Riesling.
That's been carried over to her many vintages in the Coal River Valley.
This is a sibling wine to the family's 2020 Tribute Riesling. Made largely from Butcher's Hill fruit, it's a similarly crisp and lively wine with a long life ahead of it.
A little extra flesh on the wine's great bones makes it eminently drinkable now with pan-fried trout or flathead.
www.pooleywines.com.au
2019 Pooley Pinot Noir $N/A
With the 2020 vintage of this wine now selling, there's still time to search your favourite retailers and eateries for the last bottles of the 2019.
At face value, it's the company's entry level Pinot Noir from this excellent vintage. But forget that.
The Pooley family has such a wealth of Pinot Noir resources that every one of its 2019 wines will pass the closest of scrutiny.
This little smoothie displays the rich hues and depth of fruit that typifies these Coal River Valley wines. Expect plenty of engaging red cherry and forest fruit flavour, along with understated oak.
Drink or keep.
www.pooleywines.com.au
2016 Kreglinger Vintage Brut Rosé $75
The 2022 Halliday Wine Companion named the 2017 Bellebonne Natalie Fryar Vintage Rosé its Sparkling Rosé of the Year, so it's no surprise this striking Kreglinger wine, created by the same fizz wiz, was also a firm favourite for top honours.
Made entirely from a single site of exceptional Pinot Noir, capital intensive techniques including barrel fermentation and extended time on yeast lees have provided some genuine quality dividends.
This is a refined, ultra-smooth sparkling, with balancing natural acidity supporting subtle spice, rosewater and red apple characters. The creamy texture is delightful.
www.kreglingerwineestates.com
- Mark Smith wrote his first weekly Tasmanian wine column back in 1994. He continues to chart the successes of the state's small scale, cool climate wine industry with contributions to some of Australia's leading industry publications