Gram’s the Word

It was with an odd—even somewhat apprehensive—sensation that on the morning of the 12th September 2009 I poured sixteen current crop Clare rieslings into my Riedel Blind-Blind tasting glasses, and then muddled them using my ‘half-blind’ randomising system.

The wines on the table in of me were in the cottage where I’d recently begun residing in the wee Mid-North village of Watervale with Kerri Thompson. Kerri—KT—was a bit freaked out too. Primarily because there were a few of her wines by KT rizzas from the Peglidis and Churinga vineyards in the line-up, and she knew I’d be forthright in my observations.

But she was also a bit perturbed at tasting from the manganese oxide-dyed crystal Riedel glassware. Winemakers, you see, and—for that matter—sommeliers, show judges, and others who evaluate vino professionally, generally like to sight the liquid for visual clues as to ‘condition’, age, even hints as to varietal identity. In blind wine qualification exams, options games and the like, this can prove especially helpful in assisting identification. I’m deuteranomalous and so my visual acuity—colour-wise—leaves me disadvantage in this regard.

This bit of context I provide as, while me and Kerri—I’ve never addressed her as KT incidentally—have lived separate lives for a number of years, we’re still thankfully connected through our daughter Willa, whose initials appear on Kerri’s sublime 2022 Fortified Shiraz. This disclosure may be of interest if such considerations hold value for you when reading my reviews (see also the footnote below).

Peglidis vineyard riesling destined for 2021 wines by KT Melva. Pic: Tim White

Kerri’s 2009 Peglidis riesling, then released under KT and The Falcon label, was my top wine of the tasting that morning, as it genuinely happened. The Peglidis vineyard is a most special place in the revered Clare sub-region of Watervale. Its wine story began in 1970 when Paniotis ‘Bunny’ and Yvonne Peglidis established their farm. Their first riesling vines were planted in 1973.

Slightly below Peg that morning was the Crabtree Watervale of the same vintage. Which was good news all round, as Kerri was engaged in a consultative winemaking capacity at Crabtree back then.

There was another KT riesling in this same line-up, from the Churinga vineyard (now owned by Jim Barry and rebranded with the somewhat retirement home-sounding Watervale Gardens). I also pointed this highly at 92/100 along with the Pikes Traditionale, which is invariably one of the district's most consistent performers in any vintage year. This I mention to indicate that I don’t drop 95/100—that’s the accepted gold medal standard at an Australian wine show—on everything, even when one does learn of a wine’s origin. Although this is pretty much the norm now Aussie wine influencers spruiking their reviews for renumeration.

Absent from the that ’09 line-up was Kerri’s Melva which, as noted in my reviews here is invariably—vintage-in and vintage-out—one of her most engaging expressions of Watervale riesling. Of any Clare riesling, full-stop. But, more on this later.

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Bunny Peglidis winter pruning in 2010. He and Yvonne haved tended to every single one of these vines for fifty years.  Pic: Tim White

Sense of places

This wasn’t the first time I’d engaged in a serious wine tasting in the district of Clare, of course. One of the most significant ever—for the then, now and future history of quality wine in Australia to the mind and palate of this individual—took place on the 3rd October 2000 at the historic Leasingham winery, which was sadly shuttered by then owners Constellation a little under a decade later.

In typical, cynical wine corporate fashion, Constellation retained title to this lauded Clare producer's label even though the spirit had evaporated. Along with three fine vineyards—Rogers, Schobers and Provis—upon which much of Leasingham’s contemporary reputation was founded. 

But that exciting October morning I participated in a tasting of 2000 vintage Clare rieslings comparing those sealed under screw caps with the same producer’s wine’s under natural cork. This closure innovation went under the Clare Valley Winemakers Association’s internal working title of ‘The Stelvin Project’, which years later would be dubbed ‘The Australian Screwcap Initiative’ (at the Maurice O’Shea Award dinner in 2012).

But when you’re dropping in and out of a wine region, even if undertaking rigorous tastings—maybe even tasting some grapes as harvest time approaches, if you’re lucky—it can be hard to get an understanding of the lie and life of the land. To comprehend the subtleties and shifts that occur across a vineyard season; to get a meaningful appreciation of what shaped the liquid in the glass before you.

Remarkably though, the first time I ventured to the Peglidis vineyard with Kerri I realised that I had actually been there previously. Of all the places that I’d have visited in Clare before! I can’t recall when, but I was in the company of Stephanie Toole who sourced grapes for her Mount Horrocks riesling from Peglidis at the time. It was meeting Bunny and Yvonne again that joined the dots (bad KT label pun intended—more on that later*). It's the spirit of people, in addition to place, that makes something special.

Bunny and Yvonne, Brendan (Pudney), KT, and some of the lovingly-tended vines on the Peglidis vineyard in Watervale. Pic: Tim White

So it was that in 2010, as fruit was approaching maturity—that is post-veraison and with the picking clock slowly, then quickly, ticking down—that I became immersed in tasting the grapes which the person I was walking rows with—block after block—would be transforming into wine.

Even with a great palate, and KT most certainly has one, tasting grapes—that is understanding what their developing flavours inform you about the wine that is yet to be created—is an acquired skill.

Across just one vineyard, such as Peglidis, there’ll be significant differences in grape maturity as you move north to south; as soil type, and topsoil depth subtly transition beneath your feet. The air temperature will alter also. Even on warm to hot days on a gentle open slope there’ll be cooler parts in the vineyard.

Across the road at Churinga—as it was then named—it got even more complicated because of the property’s varied topography. The old vine Grenache block on the western side of the vineyard that one can see from the Main North Road was invariably at a different state of maturity—tasted on the same morning—to the other old block over the hill on the far side of the vineyard on a gentle slope to the east.

So too the Riesling across the property which ranged from young vine north facing blocks to the old contour vines on the eastern side where the vineyard was also bordered by woodland to the north.

When tasting the black grapes in 2010 I remember thinking that I ’sort of' got how to assess Shiraz and Grenache reasonably well. But Churinga's Cabernet Sauvignon grape berry qualities completely eluded me, as much as I’ve adored the finished article (Kerri’s ’09 Churinga is one of my favourite ever Clare Valley Cabernets).

But Kerri, of course, got the timing of harvest absolutely right—on tasting alone—and I remember marvelling at the finished wine when it was released after happening upon in in one of my ‘half-blind’ tastings (in Riedel Blind Blinds, of course). It was—presumably still is—beautifully flavoured and structured and emphatically Clare Cabernet Sauvignon (see my review of the Castine vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon here).

Peglidis riesling soon to be hand-picked and transformed to wine. Pic: Tim White

Titles and accolades

Now, Kerri has been dubbed ‘Australia’s Riesling queen’ or similar by a number of titles over the years including by the Halliday Wine Companion Magazine. Although she’s never referred to herself as such, of course, and is a somewhat embarassed by the reference if someone else does. But her finest reds from Clare are also right there with her top rizzas, and she’s garnered a good few Australian wine show trophy crowns for reds she’s presided over along the way: at Leasingham, Crabtree, and now Skillogalee—where she leads the winemaking team.

And speaking of trophies, and before we pop back over the road to Peglidis to talk of Melva, while researching this piece I found a column I’d written for the The Australian Financial Review published in October 2009 about the Clare community and the Leasingham closure (of the winery, not ‘The Stelvin Project). I’d forgotten all about it, but it’s still up there for all to access on the AFR website. That’s if want to subscribe. Otherwise you can read it here.

My column opened with this: “The media release arrived on September 11 announcing the 2005 Leasingham Classic Clare Riesling had won not only the trophy for the best riesling at the Royal Perth Wine Show, but also the prize for best white, and best wine of show overall - three trophies in all.”

What I did not mention back then—as it would have presented a reasonable conflict of interest—is that the winemaker responsible for creating this wine was one Kerri Thompson. But even if you had read Constellation's media release you would not have known this significant detail anyway, as the company omitted it from the release. So here it is now, out there for the record. If you have a bottle tucked away it should still be in fine condition. It was, of course, sealed under screwcap. 

Wine springs maternal

But back to Peglidis today where he fruit—the grapes—for Kerri’s Melva Wild-Fermented Riesling are grown. The wine is named for Kerri’s maternal grandmother. The selection differs from the KT single vineyard Peglidis and is usually taken from the southern-most plantings as I recall it. The vines which are closest to Bunny and Yvonne’s little grove of olives and fruit trees. 

The snips aren’t props: KT in the Peglidis house block picking with the ’21 harvest crew. As she continues to do. Pic: Tim White

There's a quince tree growing there too whose fruit I once used as vital complimentary component in a lamb tagine (although made in a Staub cast-iron pot, not an authentic clay tagine). The original recipe which I’ve modified it a bit, especially as it relates to the timing and addition of some components, was sourced from delicious magazine.

With quinces currently in season I’ve made it once again with a boned-out shoulder of  Wunderbar lamb, maintaining a regional and familial theme (read on). It is the perfect dish to feast upon with some KT ’22 Grenache.

As mentioned above in blind tastings of Clare riesling over the years it is routinely one of my top picks in any given vintage. Only once—and I’ve tasted Melva back as far as 2008—have I pointed it below an Australian Wine Show silver medal level. The run of vintages from ’21 is most special indeed with every one pointed by me at high silver or gold level (and I’ve judged a few in my time—shows I mean). My tastes have not been shared, however, by the various chairs and judges at the Clare Valley Wine Show over the years, and KT has long given up on submitting Melva into it.

That said, I should add here that the wines by KT Peglidis single vineyard was a gold medal winner in the Wines of Provenace class at last year’s Clare show, which speaks heaps of the scintillating quality of Bunny and Yvonne’s wine grapes.

Unlike the Peglidis single vineyard riesling which is fermented in stainless steel, the Melva goes straight to old oak barrels, where they all tick along at their own pace. A selection of these barrels is then made, blended, and bottled. The label takes inpsiration from the work of Marion Hall Best.

And, as mentioned above, is named for Kerri’s grandma. Willa’s grandmother, Coralie—a.k.a. Cozza or ‘Gram', as Willa fondly calls her—tells me that Melva (Kermode, nee. Heinrich) was born in the Mid North at Burra Hospital and lived on the family farm, Manofield, at Black Springs until she got married.

Hence the Wunderbar reference above. Wunderbar free-range lamb, you see, is farmed by the fifth gneration of the Heinrich family at Black Springs, just half an hour west of the wines by KT cellar door in Auburn. So families aligned and more dots connected. 

wines by KT, 20 Main North Road, Auburn SA 5451

Written and published by Tim White, May/June 2026