Jeff Grosset doesn’t want to sound like Murray Tyrrell at his famous best, but he’s already prepared to suggest that his 2003 rieslings might even top his magical 2002 crop. ‘It might surprise some people, but despite the talk of drought it wasn’t a hot season. We’ve had warm and sunny conditions all the way through and the fruit arrived in exceptional condition. We’re sitting on a respectable crop, slightly larger than last year’s, and it was also the quickest vintage we’ve ever had. The last fruit we took was two days ago (April 9th) from the Polish Hill Vineyard, which came in at over 8 grams per litres of acid and twelve degrees Baume at the end of the harvest. Analytically 2003 wasn’t that different from last year; it was another shocking year for the tartaric acid salesman’, he said today. Overall, while it’s too early to make a broad judgement over the Clare Valley region’s 2003 vintage, Grosset suggests that while there might well be a wider variation of yield and quality than experienced in 2002, there should certainly be some highlights. Some earlier-maturing vineyards might have been adversely affected by the 8cm of rain that fell during the ripening season, but Grosset’s and other later-maturing riesling vineyards were too immature to be affected by the resultant fruit splitting that plagued many of the warmer regions in South Australia, such as the Barossa Valley. Jeff Grosset’s Clare Valley-based wine company, Grosset Wines, is widely regarded as Australia’s finest maker of riesling, a view with which I heartily concur. His two rieslings are labeled Polish Hill and Watervale Riesling.
