2008 The Dry Dam

© Vince O'Farrell

Click here for large view

Alcohol by Vol: 11.5%
Glucose & Fructose: 12.8 g/L
Harvest Dates: 11,12,13 and 27 February 
Titratable Acid: 8.6 g/L
pH: 2.8
Bottled: 22 and 23 May 
Chief Winemaker:
Chester d’Arenberg Osborn
Senior Winemakers:
Jack Walton and Toby Porter

Other Vintages

“Lean and green bouquet like freshly picked apples. Tons of acid bite on the palate but there is enough sweet fruit weight to carry it.
Showing good cellaring potential. ”

In 1992 our neighbours built a dam in which no water lay, as it was a dry winter. The next year it rained but the dam was jinxed and didn’t hold water. We still hold the blame. Some people mix the name around, calling the wine ‘The Dam Dry Riesling’, which in some years is truer than others.

The Dry Dam has an almost translucent appearance with an explosive aroma of lime skins, red apple, citrus blossom, grapefruit, tropical fruits and rose petals with mineral notes developing as the wine opens up.

The palate is extremely youthful and elegantly framed, dominated with lime juice, ripe florals, red apple and lemony-grapefruit notes. The balance of fruit sweetness, palate softness and very precise acidity is superb. The lingering dry length of flavour and intensity dominated by minerals and lime juice is a clear give away that this is not a normal McLaren Vale Riesling.

With bottle age the colour of ‘The Dry Dam’ takes on a deeper, yellow-gold appearance. The high fruit intensity and acid of youth initially develops richer florals with honeysuckle, and peaches with the palate becoming fuller, richer and very long.

2007 will be remembered as the earliest start to vintage ever due to extreme drought conditions not seen since 1959 and the most frustrating. Overall winter rainfalls were a third of what we normally receive. The quality of the vintage held up but yields were tiny.
With extremely dry conditions and cold spring temperatures leading up to the growing season, the vines produced very short shoot length which in turn reduced bunch size and weight due to smaller berry size. 

Just as vintage was due to commence we experienced a 50mm downpour which created considerable fruit splitting on many of our dry grown vineyards, including Riesling which again reduced yield. This rain with all its associated issues saved the vintage as it set the early vines for a stress-free ripening which produced grapes with great acidity.

The 2008 Dry Dam Riesling fruit was selected from four separate picks over eight dry-grown vineyards yielding an average of less than 2.5 tonnes to the acre. Highly clarified free run juice was only collected for this wine from our basket press. This retains the natural fruit delicacy from this highly prized selection. Fermentation is long and cool and we use neutral yeasts in temperature controlled vessels to allow the full expression of fruit character to emerge from this wine. .