2024 Pikes - Riesling Clare Valley Traditionale (750ml)

Brothers Andrew and Neil Pike established Pikes Wines in 1984, when the family pooled resources to purchase twenty-seven hectares in the Polish Hill River sub-region of South Australia's Clare Valley. Andrew brought two decades of experience at Penfolds to the venture, and the estate has since grown to around one hundred hectares, now managed by the next generation alongside chief winemaker Steve Baraglia. The Pike family's connection to handcrafted beverages actually traces back even further, to a nineteenth-century ancestor who ran a brewery in the Adelaide Hills, a heritage the family has carried into its winemaking today.

Traditionale has been a cornerstone of the Pikes range for more than four decades and has become Australia's best-selling premium Riesling. The fruit is sourced from the estate's Polish Hill River vineyards along with a small group of trusted growers across Watervale, Leasingham, Mintaro, and Sevenhill, each site contributing its own character to the final blend. Clare Valley's high elevation and dramatic swing between warm days and cool nights help preserve the natural acidity and concentrated flavor that define the region's Rieslings, and the wine is made in a bone-dry style that showcases that structure.

The wine offers a vibrant nose of lime zest, white blossom, and orange essence with a chalky mineral edge. On the palate, racy acidity cuts through a slippery texture, leaving tangy citrus flavors that linger on a long, refreshing finish. It's an excellent match for fresh oysters, Thai green curry, or a tangy goat cheese.