I can recall the first time I tasted Frankland Estate‘s Isolation Ridge Riesling, and since then have looked forward to tasting each next vintage on release. Certainly there has been vintage variation, but generally over the past eight or so years this single-vineyard wine from the Great Southern area has only continued to improve. The recently released 2016 is probably the best yet showing intensity, purity and complexity. Like it’s earlier vintage siblings, it will age gracefully for those patient enough.
While I’ve come to expect the Isolation Ridge Riesling will show its pedigree on release, surprisingly this was not what impressed me most the the current releases from this winery. It was the general quality of all wines right across board: from the Rocky Gully range to the Estate wines, and the single vineyards. On top of that, the packaging is also first class (I’ve always liked the simple, earthy abstract element to the Rocky Gully labels).
Also impressive is that all the wines are well balanced in terms of price to quality, and if anything they all err on the side of good value irrespective of price. And the best value at the moment seems to be the pigeon-pair of the Estate Chardonnay and the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon – both from the 2015 vintage, and both very good wines.