2021 The Story Wines Whitlands Riesling

WINEMAKER: Rory Lane
REGION: Whitlands, VIC
VARIETAL: Riesling
VITICULTURE: Organic/Sustainable

Our sixth release from Whitlands, and a very strong one at that. The Croucher Vineyard is set at close spacing on red volcanic soils, up at around 800m above sea level, and was planted in the mid-1980s. It is proper cool-climate viticulture - something I think Riesling really needs to give full expression. 2021 was a cool, wet, late and long vintage, which somehow achieved excellent ripeness (after some nervous rain events). We reverted back to a higher amount of oak fermentation (1000lt old foudre) chasing texture and softness to counter the everpresent acidity this site delivers. A little residual sugar (6g/l) adds further counterweight to the high acidity, but there is ample tropical fruit woven through the citrus and phenolic grip. Characteristic ripe lemon and tonic water flavours are all there, and I think a long life beckons, much like 2017. 

The Story Wines was established in 2004 by Rory Lane, selecting grapes from small, older vineyards in the Grampians region of Western Victoria. Rory's story isn't the classic one. He wasn't born into a wine family, he didn't make a small fortune in other business before turning his eye to wine, but rather he started small, with fruit from regions he was most passionate about and transported them to a small suburban winery on the outskirts of Melbourne. In a short time Rory has built a reputation for producing soulful wines that speak of their regions.