2025 Cherubino The Yard Riversdale Riesling, Frankland River

A remarkably pure and pristine Riesling displaying an initial slaty lemon and lime mix on the nose. The palate has a tension and linear structure which proceeds with lancing accuracy to a very long and lifted finish. A pronounced minerality adds a further level of character and flare. Drink to 2035.

93 points Ray Jordan WA Wine Review 2026

Larry Cherubino is an experienced winemaker of Italian heritage with roots firmly in place across Western Australia’s Great Southern, Pemberton and Margaret River wine regions. His extensive portfolio of wines spans a dozen or so labels, each offering a number of varieties or styles, and all delivering impressively consistent quality and value.

The Yard wines are a collection of single vineyard expressions with a focus on Frankland River and Pemberton, and act as a testing laboratory for future Cherubino tier of wines.

The grapes for this Riesling were grown in the 1998 planted Riversdale vineyard in the Frankland River subregion of the Great Southern in Western Australia, where the warm and dry 2025 season resulted in an early harvest in February. The handpicked grapes were crushed, the juice settled in stainless steel and fermented with a combination of indigenous and cultivated yeasts and bottled within six months of the harvest.

Still a young Riesling, this opens with lifted herbal citrus aromas that carry onto the zesty, bone-dry palate. Give it a good swirl in the glass to expose it to air, and enjoy it as an aperitif or with fresh, light seafood or tempura.

It has the structure to age and might become a long-lived white, with Larry himself expecting a life-span of more than twenty years.