2024 Crawford River Riesling
2024 Crawford River Riesling

2024 Crawford River Riesling

97 pts NICK RYAN TOP 100
Crawford River |Henty |Riesling
One of the leading Riesling producers in the country, in typically scintillating form.
5.0
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
8 Reviews
Price:
$55.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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Description

This is one of those touchstone wines that stands at the front of the pack for Australian Riesling.

It comes from the iconic Crawford River winery with Belinda Thomson now crafting some of the finest Rieslings in the land from her family estate.

This is the wine they are best known for, and this release is once again outstanding. A wine renowned for it's blistering intensity and incredible longevity, this is simply a must try for any Riesling fan!

With an incredible track record for consistency, this is a benchmark for Australian Riesling, to be sure.

97 points
"A very bright green gold. Smells like the essence of perfectly ripened lemon and lime, jasmine and frangipani together with a little apple blossom. Gently textured, this flows mellifluously across the palate, finishing saline, chalky and long. Just a touch richer than the '23 and a beautiful wine to drink now and over the next eight to 10 years at least."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

97 points
"The palate is wonderfully intense and refined, delicate but penetrating and focused, with a lovely undertone of ripe fruit sweetness. Fruit flavour is perfectly balanced by the acidity and the persistence is very long. A concentrated, crystalline riesling which drinks well now but has much more in store for those who patiently cellar it."
- Houn Hooke (The Real Review)
Nick Ryan

Nick Ryan

The Weekend Australian 96 Points

Top 100 Wines of 2025

I vividly remember my first Crawford River riesling. Five Way Cellars in Sydney, mid 1990s. A bottle shop boy with his mind blown by a wine from a grazing property in far Western Victoria unlike anything his sheltered upbringing on Clare and Eden Valley classics had shown him. What wowed me then still wows me now. It’s always been a texture thing - there’s just a gentle grip, a perfectly pitched phenolic squeeze at play in these wines that set them apart. A true Australian classic.

97 points - "A very bright green gold. Smells like the essence of perfectly ripened lemon and lime, jasmine and frangipani together with a little apple blossom. Gently textured, this flows mellifluously across the palate, finishing saline, chalky and long. Just a touch richer than the '23 and a beautiful wine to drink now and over the next eight to 10 years at least." - Philip Rich )Halliday Wine Companion)

97 points - "Very light straw colour in the glass; the bouquet is fresh but reserved at first, with subtle aromas of fresh pastry, lime and florals, building intensity with extended time in the glass. The palate is wonderfully intense and refined, delicate but penetrating and focused, with a lovely undertone of ripe fruit sweetness. Fruit flavour is perfectly balanced by the acidity and the persistence is very long. A concentrated, crystalline riesling which drinks well now but has much more in store for those who patiently cellar it." - Houn Hooke (The Real Review)

94 points - "Flesh and cut, a duo of textures that make for complexity and interest. Concentration of lime and red apple, some light honey almond notes, a touch of sugared almond perhaps with light fennel and dill notes in the mix. It’s got some saline shimmer through it too, perhaps even some pleasing white balsamic lift to it all too. Attractive, a slightly wilder edge, with savouriness in the mix. Great, proper riesling and drinks with charm and interest, to be drunk younger with all that amplitude in this release." - Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)

Customer Reviews

5.0
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
Based on 8 reviews
Total 5 star reviews: 8 Total 4 star reviews: 0 Total 3 star reviews: 0 Total 2 star reviews: 0 Total 1 star reviews: 0
8 reviews
  • RC
    Robert C.
    Verified Buyer
    3 minutes ago
    Reviewing
    2024 Crawford River Riesling
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    Cool Climate Riesling

    Excellent wine for drinking now or much later.

    Typical cool climate fruit & acidity.

    A top Aussie riesling for sure.

    Was this helpful?
  • MH
    Michael H.
    Verified Buyer
    Wine Knowledge Level Enthusiast
    1 year ago
    Wine Knowledge Level Enthusiast
    Reviewing
    2023 Crawford River Riesling
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    An excellent wine from a very consistent producer

    A wonderful quite complex riesling - dry, a nice combination of minerality and citrus. Flavor excellent on first taste and prolonged. Looking forward to trying other bottles with time.

    Was this helpful?
  • MB
    Mark B.
    Verified Buyer
    2 years ago
    Reviewing
    2023 Crawford River Riesling
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    Excellent Australian Riesling

    This is a uniquely rich, yet totally dry Australian riesling that still maintains the acidity so essential to this wine's affinity for virtually any food pairing.

    Was this helpful?
Show More

“The 2023/4 season was a vigneron’s dream vintage, with pristine fruit enabling wonderful results in the winery. The season provided even growing conditions, resulting in wines of great purity, definition, and drive.”
— Belinda Thomson, Vigneron.

Season

The 2023/24 vintage was exceptional, with minimal disease pressure ensuring immaculate fruit in plentiful quantity. A somewhat dry start to spring was alleviated by timely rainfall at the end of November, leading to a fabulous flowering across the vineyard—especially for Riesling.

Short, heavy rainfall at the end of December and early January set the vineyard up well for the dry six weeks that followed. Veraison in mid-February progressed smoothly, and nets were applied earlier than usual. Picking began on March 21, the earliest start in years. The fruit throughout harvest was immaculate, and the Riesling yield was plentiful—a welcome relief after several low-yielding seasons.

Winery

The Riesling was made using whole-cluster fruit at the press. After a natural settling, spontaneous fermentation ensued. It was cool-fermented to dryness in 100% stainless steel. The wine spent approximately eight weeks on lees before racking and blending. Bottled in September 2024.
Screwcap closure.

Vineyard

The fruit for this Riesling comes from the vineyard’s oldest blocks. The first Riesling plantings, established in 1975/76, are located on two gentle ridges with a NNW aspect and a gravelly, ironstone-rich, free-draining clay loam soil composition. A third block, planted in 1977, has a WNW aspect, less gravel, more sandy loam, and is closer to its limestone base.

The combination of these soils results in white floral aromatics and layers of mineral-driven texture on the palate. The Riesling clone is G198.

Winemaker’s Notes

This wine is still young and tightly coiled, showing delicate poise and immense promise. Talc and powdery chalk drive the front palate, with subtle hints of white florals and apple blossom that will evolve over time. The fruit weight delivers both power and elegance, with pronounced minerality and textural definition from start to finish.

Pure, steely, and fine—if drinking upon release, we recommend decanting. A stunning vintage.

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type White
Body Medium Bodied
Variety Riesling
Country Australia
Region Henty
Australian State VIC
Feature High Score
Iconic
Women in Wine
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
The Wine Front
The Real Review
Critic Score 97
94
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Screw Cap

Crawford River

Crawford River is very much a family operation. The talented Thomson clan have been producing wine from their beautiful home vineyard since 1985.

The Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc thrive on the estate, but it's Riesling that they are most famous for.

They produce a range of styles of varying ages that are outstanding. Many consider them as one of the country's premier producers of the noble variety.

These are wines of purity and elegance. Small-batch, family-owned, traditional winemaking and good, honest farming is at the core of everything Crawford River does.

Belinda and John Thomson - Henty, VIC Crawford River

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