2026 Stargazer Riesling, Coal River Valley

The latest Riesling from Samantah Connew’s Stargazer label, with the previous 2025 vintage rated 95 points by The Real Review and The Wine Advocate.

We’ll add our tasting notes for this wine soon. In the meantime, here’s what Samantha herself sees in a glass of the 2026:

“Very pale yellow in colour with green hints, the nose is floral and lifted, showing waxy white flowers; gardenias and jasmine. In the background pink grapefruit and kaffir lime spiciness. The acid provides structure, drive and backbone to the palate, while the tangy exit is balanced with a judicious touch of residual sugar.”

NB. on her comment re. residual sugar: this sits at modest levels and simply aims to balance off the naturally high acidity.

More about this wine

The 2026 release of this wine includes fruit from all three blocks of Riesling at Samantha's own Palisander Vineyard in the Tea Tree subregion of Coal River Valley, twenty minutes north-east of Hobart. Planted in 2004, 2017 and 2021, the clones are GM239 and GM198, with the older vine material sourced from Moorilla.

The remaining fruit is from a vineyard in the Richmond area of Coal River Valley, planted in 2017 to clone GM239. Both this and the Palisander vineyard are primarily brown dermosol on Jurassic dolerite, cane pruned and trained to a vertical shoot positioned canopy, with green harvesting and shoot thinning in spring and summer where necessary.

Harvested at a sugar range between 11.8 and 12.2 Baumé, all picks were destemmed and a 30% portion was left in contact with skins for about sixteen hours prior to gentle pressing. The wine was fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel over seven weeks, then left on lees prior to blending and bottling.

About this producer

Stargazer pays tribute to Abel Tasman, the Dutchman who is believed to be the first European to sight Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand in 1642. Founder and winemaker Sam Connew is a born and bred South Islander who fell in love with Tasmania after fifteen years of vintages across the globe. Her Palisander Vineyard in the upper reaches of Coal River in Lutruwita/Tasmania was planted by its original owners in 2002 to Riesling and Pinot Noir and expanded in 2017 by Sam with more of the same (but increasing clone numbers) and four clones of Chardonnay. Pinots Blanc and Gris followed in 2021, along with Gamay and Gewürztraminer.

The property sits on brown dermosol soil over Jurassic dolerite and is particularly high in calcium associated with thicker skins and slower ripening. Sam believes in the strength of biodiversity and regenerative agriculture and uses sheep and chickens for manure distribution and weed and bug control. Bees and other insects are essential for vine pollination too, and Sam has planted over 1000 local plants on the property since 2020 to provide them with food around the year.