Mitchell Watervale shows amazing intensity of flavour, articulate of its Clare Valley provenance, all the winemaking team need do is preserve the character of organically grown fruit as it proceeds through the vinification. Intense with tangy lime characters, citrus florals, thistle milk and talc, a refreshing Riesling of exquisite elegance, divine balance and poise. Wild ferments, lees contact and an extended term of bottle age all serve to soften the palate, its luxurious minerality resolves on a racy, crisp and gratifyingly drying finish.
Mitchell's largest vineyard is located at Watervale, several kilometres south of the estate wineworks. Set on the exposed eastern slopes of undulating hills, with long rows of vine, this can be a very bleak place in the middle of winter at pruning time. The isolation and chills has led to it becoming known among the vineyard workers as Alcatraz, a place to do penance in the cold, wind and rain of a Clare Valley winter. Alcatraz, which only ever yields around two ton per acre, is particularly well suited to Riesling, infusing the fruit with great depth of flavour. The fully mature vines are planted to soils that are rich red brown loam and clay over limestone, at an altitude between 300 and 400 metres.
TASTING NOTES