2018 Jim Barry The Florita Riesling Cellar Release, Clare Valley

Soft and supple, medium-weight white wine of modest development, good retention of freshness and a pitch-perfect mesh of citrus fruit, gin and tonic characters, green olive, red apple with calling cards of maturity in truffle, creme brûlée, honey and a touch of sizzled butter. A very pleasing balance of all elements, an intensity and inherent complexity on show. It delivers a very serious white wine expression, compelling for its intensity and yet freshness. Drink 2025 to 2033.

96 points Mike Bennie for Halliday Wine Companion, April 2025

Toasty development and burnt-lime aromas, very appealing and showing appropriate age development. A powerful, concentrated wine with firm acidity driving a very long palate. This would be great with any pan-fried white-fleshed fish. Drink 2024 to 2030.

96 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, December 2024

Tasted at the Armagh Hut with Sam and Tom Barry, the 2018 The Florita Riesling leads with a Comté cheese character, but it has energy and flow in abundance. There are notes of cheesecloth—lanolin, even—fennel flower, brine, walnuts… I love this vintage in the reds, and it’s super cool to see how well it translated to the whites as well! This is great. Yum. Drink 2022 to 2038.

94 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, October 2022

Jim Barry was the first qualified winemaker in the Clare Valley, and the business he founded in 1959 has remained in family hands for three generations. The Florita is the family's flagship Riesling: a micro-batch wine drawn from individual rows of the historic Florita vineyard in Watervale, fifteen kilometres south of Clare.

The vineyard's story stretches back to 1946, when it was planted to Palomino for Fino Sherry production, before being replanted to Riesling in 1962. It was here that legendary winemaker John Vickery sourced the fruit for his celebrated Leo Buring Watervale Rieslings of the 1960s and 1970s, wines that defined Clare Valley Riesling for a generation. The Barry family purchased the 80-acre property in 1986, and after nearly two decades of patience, launched The Florita Riesling in 2004.

The best fruit comes from shallow loamy soils over deep limestone. Grapes are hand-harvested in the cool of the night, destemmed without crushing, and pressed to retain primarily free-run juice. Cold fermentation in stainless steel preserves fruit purity, vineyard character and natural acidity. The wine has been sealed with a screwcap from the outset, protecting every vintage through decades of development. Over fifty percent of production is held back for release at between seven and twenty years of age.

The 2018 was considered a classic Clare Valley vintage — one that produced wines of exceptional purity and concentration. Now with seven years of age, the 2018 Florita is entering a beautiful drinking window. Fragrant camomile, bitter lemon and a developing toastiness on the nose, with an underlying mineral quality that speaks clearly of the vineyard's limestone bedrock. The palate is concentrated and linear: ample lemon, lime and citrus peel, with a lovely mid-palate richness and the fine, chalky mineral length that is the Florita's hallmark. Brilliant density and complexity, with the acidity still fresh and driving.

Drink now through 2035.