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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2012 and 2017 (based on 62 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 88.9 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 7 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Bonesetter on 10/7/2022 & rated 90 points: Good aged riesling. Lemon/lime fruit, well developed toasty secondary characteristics. (210 views) | | | Tasted by BAJRiley on 9/3/2021 & rated 88 points: See previous note. For this bottle I also picked up some floral notes and a hint of butter. The back palate shows that signature steely taste for Riesling.
This is good but for me Clare Valley is the place to go for South Australian Riesling. Drink up. (455 views) | | | Tasted by BAJRiley on 5/17/2021 & rated 87 points: Gold colour. Nose: lime, honey, petrol, hint of mango, herbs and smoke. Palate: medium to light body. Acidity is fading a bit for me, allowing for its age. Moderate finish. I enjoyed the nose more than the palate. Good wine. Drink up. (478 views) | | | Tasted by A_Steady on 4/23/2020 & rated 92 points: Drinking nicely at 12 years (647 views) | | | Tasted by azzah on 9/30/2012 & rated 80 points: Not a high point for Rockford. And who in Australia still seals riesling under cork? If there was a case for not putting riesling under cork, this was probably it, as it may have been some of the cause of this wine's premature ageing. Golden yellow in colour. Petrol/kerosene, honey, and citrus fruit on the nose, but with the fruit in the background. Same in the mouth. It seems like all the secondary flavours dominate over the usual Eden Valley limes. Acid seems a bit flat. It's OK and drinkable, but it's like a savoury version of a riesling. (1937 views) | | | Tasted by sjw_11 on 5/18/2011 & rated 93 points: Glowing yellow/green in the glass. The nose is dominated by lime juice, lemon blossom and a slight hint of oil. Fresh cut lime as well. On the palate there is puckering acid, chalky minerality, and lifted freshly squeezed lime. Now to 10yrs, if the cork allows. Very fine. (436 views) |
| Rockford Producer Website
Winery Note:
I was born into a family of grape growers and grew up in vineyards and wineries, where I inherited a great respect for the pioneer Australian wine trade. All that I’ve experienced is reflected in the Rockford winemaking principles; Quality winemaking is a skilled craft that consumes a very large part of one’s life, so it must give you joy. That joy is extended if the maker can sell the wine directly to those who drink it for their pleasure.
My grandparents on both sides and also my parents were grape growers, so my childhood was spent in their vineyards. My parents moved to North Eastern Victoria where my Father managed a vineyard for Australia’s then largest family winemakers, Seppelts. In 1965 I followed a natural path and started as a trainee winemaker at Seppelt’s Rutherglen winery.
It was a wonderful apprenticeship in the old, ordered, slow and gentle Australian wine trade. The wines I drank, the winemakers from previous generations with whom I associated and everything I absorbed in that period had a major influence on the way Rockford is today. Although I’ve spent all my life in vineyards and wineries, the pleasure I derive from walking through rows of vines or casks filled with wine has not diminished.
In 1971 I purchased an 1850’s stone settler’s cottage and outbuildings on five acres of land in the village of Krondorf, which sits in the shadow of the Barossa Ranges, in the heart of the Barossa Valley. The courtyard shaped winery which grew from this was built in the same style and from the same materials as the original buildings.
The vintage shed is equipped with plant from the pioneer era – I collected these valuable pieces when they were discarded by other Australian wineries as they modernised. This allows Rockford to carry on the traditional Australian winemaking techniques, but more importantly the winery is the same scale, age and pace as our growers’ vineyards.
To me the winery is not just a building but a large piece of sculpture with Barossa wine running through its veins, hopefully when you walk into the courtyard you’ll instantly feel a sense of all that it represents.
Wine is crafted, not created. The skill is to capture and enhance the fleeting flavours that grapes give from their variety and extract from the earth, then bottle these as a living record of the vintage they represent.
Rockford wines are made from established Barossa varieties which form an important part of our winemaking heritage, in a style that best reflects the vineyards, the winemaker’s attitude and the climate in which we live.
I have always lived in and feel most comfortable with the warm Mediterranean climate of the Barossa where grapes ripen easily. My preference is to make the wine by hand with traditional methods, attitudes and equipment to produce elegant but rich, earthy, soft, generous wines that will age - the kind that I drank in my youth.
- Robert O'CallaghanRiesling Varietal character (Appellation America) | A short history of Riesling (Uncork) | Riesling (wikipedia)Australia Wine Australia (Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation) | Australian Wines (Wikipedia)South Australia South Australian Wine Industry Association | South Australian Wines (Wikipedia)Barossa Barossa Wine (South Australian Tourism Commission) |
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