Howard Park Flint Rock Riesling 2025 12 Pack

94 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

A cracking Riesling from the Great Southern region in Western Australia, which is also seriously good value. 2025 is proving to be an excellent vintage. This is a regional selection, and fruit is sourced from three of the Great Southern sub-regions, Mount Barker, Porongurup and Frankland River. Each vineyard was made discretely in stainless steel tanks, with a long and cold fermentation. Pale lemon in colour, the nose gives us notes of citrus, florals, grapefruit pith, lemon curd, oyster shells and a minerally backing. The wine has focus, excellent balance and very good length, with good concentration throughout. A really impressive Riesling which is great buying, it has room for further improvement. Enjoy it over the next twelve to fifteen years. Ken Gargett Contributor at Winepilot Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home. Wine writer and critic

93 POINTS

Jeni Port - Winepilot

You are now entering the Great Southern region where Riesling is queen. The scent says as much with its lifted lime, lemon and grapefruit citrus accompanied by apple blossom florals. So pretty.  This young ’25 Riesling has a decidedly delicate side so it is best not to over-chill. If you do, you will miss some of the nuance, the crystalline notes, the green apple brightness, the touch of grapefruit pith and the awakening of a lovely textural quality to the wine. Overall, a really compelling wine right now and dare I suggest well into the future. Past vintages certainly indicate as much – history is on your side with this lovely Rizza. Jeni Port Wine critic at Winepilot Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards. Wine writer and critic