About Us

Riesling is our single focus.

We make nothing else. 

So naturally, our undivided attention goes into one thing – making the best Riesling year on year.

Since 1847, we’ve consistently delivered world class, award-winning Riesling. It’s all we know. Needless to say, we know our stuff. But we can’t take all the credit.

Our single site vineyard located within a heavenly slice of the Eden Valley, lets nature do its thing, so the need for human intervention is minimal. In fact, it’s very rare that a vineyard is this complete, creating a Riesling that’s simply delicious. 

 

 

 

If the vineyard could speak, it would regale with tales of pioneering growers, multiple owners (including the Hill-Smith family’s 60 years and counting), and Mother Nature’s highs and lows.

Throughout it all, the Riesling’s unmistakable characters stayed the same: an elegant, dry palate with fresh and crisp citrus flavours. Drink it now or watch it age with grace. Consistency like this cannot be replicated, especially when it starts from the ground up.

Our History

Just as Pewsey Vale’s story started with Riesling, it will end with Riesling.

That’s the beauty of vineyards and wine of such quality and provenance; they outlive us all.

It’s difficult to say whether the late Joseph Gilbert could have predicted the legacy he started when his weathered hands planted one acre of vines on the property he named after his home in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, UK.

The small agricultural gesture played an important part in history. It was Eden Valley’s first vineyard and one of the first of what is now Australia’s collection of coveted cool climate sites. Joseph and his son William dabbled in other varieties, including Verdelho, Gouais and Shiraz, but Riesling has always been Pewsey Vale’s backbone. When Joseph died in 1881, Pewsey Vale Vineyard had grown to 29 acres and things quietened down when William retired in 1914 (fortified wine was all the rage back then so demand for the kind of table wine we love today waned). Many-an owner followed until 1931, when Geoffrey Angas Parsons purchased the property for just over 12,968 pounds and in 1961, buoyed by enthusiasm for the site’s Riesling history, approached his pal Wyndham Hill-Smith with a proposal to restore the Pewsey Vale Vineyard and replant it to Riesling (he had the Hill-Smith's vineyard manager Norman Hanckel cheering him on in the wings). Adding some serious Riesling wisdom to proceedings, then winemaker Rudi Kronberger chose cuttings from quality old vines (thought to be from the original Pewsey Vale vineyard) and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

 

 

Any vines added since have been propagated from material from the 1961 Block. The Hill-Smith family custodianship began when Wyndham Hill-Smith purchased the land in 1970 and the family has been devoted to the land ever since. “I love being part of that history,” says chief winemaker Louisa Rose. “I’m only one person removed from Rudi who came out here from Vienna in the 1929 and made wine here for decades and then Peter Wall.” Peter Wall followed in Rudi’s footsteps and spearheaded the research that led to the first commercial release in Australia of the 1970 Pewsey Vale Riesling. Louisa Rose then took the reins as Head of Winemaking, and cemented Pewsey Vale’s position as a benchmark Australian Riesling and one of the finest and most recognised Rieslings around the world.

The 2021 vintage release of Pewsey Vale Vineyard was formally recognised for its sustainable winegrowing credentials, being amongst the first wine labels in Australia to display the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia trust mark. The future is as bright as it is consistent.