2013 Hot 100 SA Wines Results

South Australia’s top wines of 2013 were revealed at a gala event last night; the launch of the annual The Adelaide Review Hot 100 South Australian Wines.

The winner? Lofty Valley Wines’ 2012 Steeped Pinot Noir from the Adelaide Hills, which was judged as this state’s top wine of 2013 and described by the judges as the “ultimate experience in drinkability”. The Adelaide Hills region once again dominated the Top 10, revealed below, as well as the other awards, including The Le Cordon Bleu Award for Best Aromatic Light to Medium Bodied White Wine with Texture. This prize went to Paracombe Wines’ 2013 Pinot Gris from the Adelaide Hills. BK Wines’ Skin n’ Bones White 2012, also from the Adelaide Hills, won TAFE SA’s inaugural Dreamers and Believers Award, as the wine that pushed the boundaries stylistically.

Led by Chief of Judges James Erskine, the 19 judges from all over the country blind-tasted around 1100 South Australian wines to discover 2013’s most drinkable drops. The Top 10 is below.

The full list of the hottest 100 wines is available in the free publication The Adelaide Review Hot 100 South Australian Wines 2013/14, which is available from today.

 

 

10

Woodstock Wine Estate

Little Miss Collett Moscato 2013

McLaren Vale

Pops and rolls, teeters and clips. A great example of how frisky, lightly sweet fizz can really be. An exploding rose garden, pale, pretty, pink and perfumed. Refreshment and sweetness coupled equals wicked smashability that begs for repeats. Drink with gusto.

 

9

Woodstock Wine Estate

The OCTOgenarian Grenache Tempranillo 2011

McLaren Vale

There’s timelessness to this wine. A sepia-toned call to wines of yesteryear. A curve of ripe fruit showing vitality of blueberry and rose hip with a subtle integration of both bitter and sweet. Smoky oak gives stasis and yet a comely leans of nougat and lathed pinewood.

 

8

Mosquito Hill

Blanc de Blancs Sparkling 2010

Southern Fleurieu

Lifted, lemon talc and a touch of sea spray; all flavours are nicely interwoven with a sense of seriousness but with a joyous sweetness of fruit and a shy depth of halva, yeast-derived complexity. Then the fizz – vibrant and coursing across the palate, ultimately refreshing and titillating.

 

7

ess&see

Chardonnay No1 2012

Adelaide Hills

Showing tangy, pithy, grapefruit flavours and a hint of briny tang for freshness, the work in the shed shows in gunflint and smoke. Cedary oak veils the sheathed white orchard fruit characters.

 

6

St Hallett

Old Vine Grenache 2012

Barossa Valley

You could lose afternoon hours at a bar with this wine’s strawberries squashed into a harlot’s lipstick-stained mouth. You’ll need some cured meats and a few cheeky grins as company. Musky, raw and soft with a mix of pulpy and fresh fruit. It’s fresh and it will blossom in the glass. Cranberry tang finishes the wine overlain the sweetness of the red fruit upfront.

 

5

Wicks Estate

Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Adelaide Hills

Running through blackberry bushes, this juvenile red imbues all the sappiness of bramble while celebrating each plucked berry of black. Tobacco leaf, hickory and cassis fruit, there’s plenty of persistence and depth to show how far the wine will go. A rugged finesse, almost granular, but meshed and lashed to the wild briar of fruit.

 

4

Shobbrook WInes

Syrah 2012

Barossa Valley

The cosmos conspire in orange pith, wild herb and undergrowth, there’s a headiness of wild, brambly berry fruits in tow. Long, succulent and juicy with the most natural and savoury of fruit tannin. In a gorse bush covered in summer red fruits, bergamot wafts through. Complex, but then it finishes with an amaro-like tang and freshness. Simply vibrates on it’s own frequency. Bravo.

 

3

Loomwine

Long Yarn Riesling 2013

Eden Valley

A complex wine which flirts with the nose. Commitment comes on the palate, opening the pages to a long and focussed relationship. Layers of fruit and vibrant minerality, its elusiveness makes it all the more attractive as it wafts across the palate. Pithiness, citrus lime, floral – a bouquet of complexity, freshness, alpine orchards and beauty. Delicate texture of light rain, but a gossamer line of acidity keeps the wine fresh. Candy skin, rose water and musk swirls – a scented boudoir transported to glass. Thirst-slaking in the essence.

2

d’Arenberg

The Noble Prankster

Chardonnay Semillon 2010

Adelaide Hills

It’s over the top but wow, there’s so much interest and complexity here – super concentrated, deeply coloured and gloriously perfumed. Superb show of richness in an unctuous, life-affirming sweet fluid. And so fresh! Deconstructed crème brulee with a purity that makes for super drinkability. Exotic honey, citrus rind and cut apricot make it a sinful, hedonistic pleasure.

1

Lofty Valley Wines

Steeped

Pinot Noir 2012

Adelaide Hills

Like visiting an old friend, where you let yourself in, hang your jacket, dust off your pants and sit down to a warming plate of stew by the fireside. So much to give. Satin-textured with savoury elements to make it compelling. The wine blossoms unfolding lively, poised and graceful wafts of fresh red fruits, bitters and Campari and finishes with long herbal tones to keep your finger tapping on the table for more. With a resounding sense of homeliness and comfort, suppleness plays its hand. This is the ultimate experience in drinkability.