Swinney Riesling 2025
Wines taste best when shared with friends!
It’s one thing to aim for the stars; it’s quite another to have the tools to get there. Matt Swinney had a powerful vision to establish a benchmark and unique vineyard on his family’s property, situated on the gravelly, ironstone soils of the Frankland. His intention was always to found a benchmark wine label using only the finest fruit, but good things take time—especially when it comes to vines! Most plantings occurred in 1998, and the site quickly garnered a reputation for quality and originality. Innovations such as planting bush vines (the first in modern-day WA, where they are virtually unknown) and taking the leap with Grenache and Mourvèdre (in a region that many felt was too cool for these Mediterranean varieties) certainly raised eyebrows.
Fast forward to today, and the Swinney estate has become regarded by many as the finest Shiraz vineyard in WA, not to mention an excellent source for Frankland River Riesling. More recently, in 2018, the Swinneys invited renowned winemaker Rob Mann to join the team. Mann is the grandson of the legendary Jack Mann—the godfather of Western Australian wine—and is internationally respected in his own right after his work at Cape Mentelle, Hardy’s Tintara and Newton in the Napa.
Swinney does nothing by halves. This dazzling riff on Frankland River Riesling is drawn from hand-selected fruit from two of Swinney’s oldest blocks in the Powderbark Vineyard. Here, precise vineyard management—including the rare use of shade cloth to protect the grapes from the afternoon sun—helped limit excessive exposure to the sun. Careful bunch selection also eliminated any fruit that had been subject to excessive sun exposure. Such precise vineyard management goes some way to explaining the wine’s purity and transparency.
“Neat and tidy winemaking, plus the significant site, conspire to create a tightly wound, tangy and refreshing expression of classic lines and intense acidity. It's piercing and zesty, with limes, pink grapefruit, just-ripe cumquat, a light talc note, some slate and steel, with a briny mineral profile in there, too. Compact, youthful and vigorous. A delicious drink, offering key simplicity with some pizzazz.” 93pts | Mike Bennnie | Halliday Wine Companion
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