Pikes Traditionale Riesling 2025 Clare Valley

Winemaking Notes
The Pikes Traditionale Riesling 2025 is the 41st release of this iconic Clare Valley wine, crafted with meticulous attention to detail to showcase the remarkable purity achieved in this challenging vintage. The winemaking approach prioritises preserving the fruit's natural character and intensity, with 100% free-run juice used to ensure only the finest, most delicate juice makes it into the wine. This gentle extraction method avoids any harsh phenolics whilst capturing the perfumed citrus blossom and fresh lime juice aromatics that define this wine. A neutral yeast strain was selected to allow the fruit's inherent character to shine without adding extraneous flavours, ensuring the wine sings of Clare Valley Riesling terroir. Following fermentation, the wine rested on fermentation lees for three months prior to bottling, a technique that builds textural complexity and adds subtle depth whilst maintaining the bright acid line that provides energy and length. This extended lees contact enhances the wine's chalky minerality and allows the pure juice character to develop fully, creating a Riesling of remarkable clarity and intensity. The result is a wine that showcases the classic Pikes lime cordial notes alongside ripe and juicy Meyer lemon, with a touch of peach sweetness balanced by vibrant acidity and stony mineral drive—delicious right now with freshly shucked South Australian oysters and lemon, yet capable of cellaring confidently for years ahead.

Vintage Conditions
The 2025 vintage in the Clare Valley proved to be one of the most challenging on record, marking the second driest year in the region's history and testing the resilience of Pikes' Polish Hill River vineyard. Following a wet July, the season turned dry with a warm spring and summer that placed significant stress on the vines. On 17 September, frost struck the Polish Hill vineyard just after budburst, presenting an additional challenge early in the growing season. Fortunately, the early timing of the frost event allowed the vines to respond with healthy shoot growth, albeit with a smaller canopy than usual. The combination of lower yields resulting from the frost and the drought conditions, coupled with careful irrigation management, ultimately led to full ripeness and fruit of incredible concentration and purity. Whilst the challenging conditions—frost and drought—yielded smaller crops, the quality of the fruit was exceptional, displaying the perfumed citrus blossom, lemon blossoms, white stone fruit and subtle rose petal aromatics that define premium Clare Valley Riesling. The stress placed on the vines concentrated the flavours remarkably, resulting in a wine with generous Meyer lemon and lime cordial notes balanced by a bright acid line and pronounced chalky minerality. This 41st release of Pikes Traditionale stands as testament to the estate's ability to craft wines of remarkable clarity and intensity even in the most challenging vintages, showcasing the stony mineral drive and exceptional cellaring potential that have established this wine as one of Australia's benchmark Rieslings.