At a gathering for emerging leaders on Wines of Western Australia’s Cultivate Leadership programme, the emergees were asked to bring a bottle that meant something to them. Among those 12 bottles, two of them were Rieslings made by the same producer: Pikes, of the Clare Valley.
When each wine was introduced, the reasons behind the choice were much the same: because it is a much-loved benchmark example of Clare Valley Riesling that is both affordable and widely available – which also happens to make it perfect as a Wine of the Week.
I remember Pikes Riesling well from when I was in my own emerging phase. In late 2007, I worked as a wine-shop assistant in Sydney. Pikes Riesling was a bestseller, and I had to frequently restock the fridges for customers who wanted a great-value BYO bottle to take into the nearby Asian restaurants. Seeing its popularity first-hand was how my fondness for the brand began.
The 2024 vintage was the Pike family’s 40th consecutive release of Riesling. Originally from the UK, the first Pike patriarch made drinks in the Adelaide region, not far from the Clare Valley, in the late 1800s – although these were not wines, but beers and soft drinks with old-timey names like Mint Freeze and Aerated Raspberry.
Three generations later, in the mid 20th century, Edgar Pike moved into the wine industry as the original family business faltered. By 1984, the family – comprising Edgar and his wife Merle, sons Andrew and Neil and their wives Cathy and Heather – put their heads (and wallets) together to buy a vineyard. Today, Pikes is still in family hands, with around 100 ha (c 250 acres) of vines in the Polish Hill subregion, an area synonymous with great Aussie Riesling.
Here on JancisRobinson.com, Pikes Traditionale Riesling scores an average of 16.4 points across ten reviews covering seven vintages – very respectable. It is indeed a classic of its type, as I found out when recently retasting the 2023 and 2024 vintages. Lime fruit leads the flavour charge, totally textbook for Riesling, with ripeness and clarity reflecting the Clare Valley’s warm days. That gives it a rich mouthfeel too, helped along by a little residual sugar – not enough to seem sweet, but enough to give weight and generosity. The high flavour intensity gives long persistence, with high acid making the finish as refreshing as crunching down on an ice cube.
The 2023 vintage had more noticeable complexity, especially that curious and distinctive oil-and-toast aroma that Australian Riesling can develop. For me, those esoteric flavours make it the better bottle, but if you prefer more primary fruit then the 2024 is for you. Both have the same level of residual sugar, at 4.4 grams per litre, and both are also appropriately modest in alcohol at 12%.
Several vintages are available around the world now – in the UK, the 2024 is easiest to find, thanks to its distribution at Tesco supermarkets, where it sells for £13. In Singapore, you can find it at Pop Up Wine for SG$47. In the US (where the wine is imported by Winebow), the 2023 is available for $14.99 at Super Liquors in Connecticut while the 2022 is more widely available, at prices starting from $14.99, from retailers in New York, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, as well as on wine.com for just under $27 per bottle. (While I didn’t taste the 2022 this month, it got a positive write-up from Alistair Cooper MW a few years ago and I have no doubt that it will still be going strong.) Meanwhile in Australia, the 2025 vintage is already on sale.
With up to 500,000 bottles made every year, there’s plenty of Pikes Traditionale Riesling to go round. And few endorsements can be better than being picked by young professionals as one of Australia’s best-value and most reliable bottles.
