2024 Wines by KT Melva off-dry Riesling, Clare Valley

A wholly different style of Riesling here, the 2024 Melva Riesling is texturally plump, savory and spiced, with pleasing phenolic detail in the mouth. So much of Clare Riesling is made in a similar way—picked on the early side, tank fermented and bottled early to develop bottle age, but there are a few producers doing something different, either in élevage or fermentation. Here, the fruit is handled oxidatively, wild fermented in 20-year-old French oak barriques and left sur lie, with regular bâtonnage, for some months. It's a different take and one that is executed with confidence and convincing personality. The acidity prevails through the finish. Impressive! Drink 2024 to 2039.

94 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, October 2024

Lifted aromas of citrus pith, tangelo, white flowers, nettle and wet slate. Crunchy, pithy and textured, with a pure citrus drive and snappy acidity. Lovely mouth-feel and length. Drink 2024 to 2034.

93 points Arron Brasher for The Real Review, October 2024

Kerri Thompson has lived and made wine in Clare Valley since 1998. Wines by KT is her own label, established after nearly two decades making wine across Australian and European wine regions. Her wines have become much-loved among sommeliers for the precision, personality and genuine sense of place they consistently deliver.

The Melva is named after Kerri's grandmother — a quiet, personal tribute woven into one of her most distinctive wines.  The grapes for this wine are from the wonderful Peglidis vineyard in Watervale, planted in 1973 on chocolate loam over limestone and dry-grown ever since. Behind the vineyard are Bunny and Yvonne Peglidis. Bunny, now in his nineties, began growing grapes at twelve years old in his father's vineyard in Greece before migrating to Australia. For over sixty years he and Yvonne have tended this block by hand. Kerri considers their fruit among the finest in the Clare Valley, and the friendship between them is as much a part of these wines as the soil they grow in.

Wild fermented and made with deliberate textural intent, this is an off-dry Riesling that sits at the more complex and contemplative end of the KT range. It is a wine in which natural residual sweetness and savouriness wrestle beautifully for dominance.

The nose is fragrant and floral, with citrus blossom, white peach and a gentle honeyed quality. The palate is textural and layered, with natural acidity keeping everything focused and fresh through to a long, clean finish.

An off-dry style that the right food will unlock completely. Try with steamed buns filled with pork belly with pickled cucumber and hoisin — the slight sweetness in the wine echoes the hoisin and the acidity cuts the richness of the pork beautifully.