2025 Vickery Watervale Riesling, Clare Valley

Light bright yellow-green. Pithy nose summoning lime-juice, lemon and grapefruit peels, with a high note of freshly rolled pastry. Excellent intensity of fruit flavour, mouth-filling and penetrating, with a richness that is typical Watervale, filling in high on the middle palate. Generous but elegant riesling, which drinks well already and should win over many who think young Clare riesling austere. It's not! Drink 2026 to 2041.

95 points Huone Hooke for The Real Review, February 2026

Riesling sourced from five blocks in the famous subregion of Watervale. Pale with a flash of green, with crystalline aromas of freshly squeezed lime, grapefruit and green apple, hints of meadow flowers, crushed stone, makrut lime, minerals and lemongrass. Taut and nervy with a dry, savoury endpoint, this is a wine that drips with minerals and pure limey intensity.

94 points Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion Special Value, March 2026

John Vickery made Riesling wines for nearly six decades, gathering more than 50 trophies, over 400 gold medals, and a recognition by his peers as one of Australia's greatest. The Vickery label was established in 2014 to preserve his methods and philosophy, with winemaker Keeda Zilm carrying the legacy into the future.

The Watervale wine draws on five grower vineyards in the southern Clare Valley, with plantings ranging from 1975 to 2003. One of the defining characteristics of the house style is the inclusion of a portion of pressings in the final blend — a technique John Vickery championed throughout his career. Where most producers use free-run juice only, the carefully timed pressings add flavour weight and texture without bitterness.

Pale straw, the nose is lifted and aromatic — apple blossom, fennel, kaffir lime and lemon juice with a fine mineral thread. The palate is generous and focused with juicy citrus, fine powdery acidity and a long, zesty finish.

While this is young, it is built to develop over several years in the bottle. A younger wine works well with anything you’d want a squeeze of lemon or lime on: oysters, grilled prawns, fresh Vietnamese spring rolls or Thai salads. Mature bottles develop toastier and rounder flavours, and pair well with lightly prepared fish, and can take on more substantial flavours at large.