2023 La Violetta Das Sakrileg Riesling

WINEMAKER: AJ Hoadley
REGION: Great Southern, WA
VARIETY: Riesling
VITICULTURE: Sustainable

"Das Sakrileg is produced in small quantities for those with inquisitive palates and a healthy appreciation of diversity. In contrast to the classic, purist Australian Riesling style, juice is oxidatively handled, fermented wild in barrel, matured on unsulphured lees and may undergo partial malolactic.

This is a selection of the best barrels from the vintage, sourced from a single outstanding Great Southern riesling site. The 2023 release shows great phenolic presence and depth of savoury characters, with scents reminiscent of quince, petrichor, beeswax and complex characters derived from wild ferment and extended lees contact. On the finely textured palate, acidity is tempered by the richness of fermentation in seasoned oak and time on lees. The wine fermented slowly at ambient temperature in a cool hillside cellar and remained on lees in old puncheons for 11 months, before racking and bottling without fining or filtration.

Fine, cool climate floral, citrus and smoky mineral notes. Citrus intensity, alpine-like freshness, textural phenolics; savoury, saline complexity from lees contact and barrel ferment. The 2023 release has lip-smacking intensity and juicy, textural glide. There is a fine-boned tautness here with a long future ahead, but even in its youth the bottle just slides on down like it had someplace else to be. Damn." - Andrew 'Hoads' Hoadley - La Violetta Wines