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Pikes Wines can trace the history of the family winery back to 1878, when Henry Pike emigrated from Dorset to South Australia aboard the HMS Oakland. He settled in the Adelaide Hills and in 1886 established Pikes Dorset Brewery, which later changed its name to H. Pike & Co., producing beer, ales, soft drinks and cordials, including its famous Tonic Ale, all of which displayed the Pike fish symbol that Pikes Wines use to this day.

The current winery was established by third generation brothers Andrew and Neil Pike, with their parents Edgar and Merle, in 1984 in the Polish Hill River sub-region of the beautiful Clare Valley in South Australia, due north of Adelaide. The first Pikes wines were released in the spring of 1985, with a focus on aromatic, fresh wines that reflect the region, the vintage season and the varieties grown.

The ideal pairing of Andrew, viticulturist, and Neil, winemaker, have achieved considerable success with their Riesling cuvées, Riesling Traditionale and the Merle Riesling; 2016 Riesling Traditionale has just been awarded the Trophies for Best Clare Valley Riesling and Best Australian Riesling in the 2017 International Wine Challenge – an incredible achievement!

Speaking about the 2016 vintage at the time of harvest, Neil described conditions as being ‘pretty much ideal for achieving concentrated flavours and the sugar levels we require. Good weather for grapes. It will possibly come as no surprise to many that the backbone varieties of Clare such as Riesling, Shiraz and Cabernet are showing early promise. Riesling in particular has great flavour, low pH and good levels of natural acidity. While perhaps still too early to start proclaiming it as another “vintage of the century” we are really confident we will produce some terrific wines from 2016.’

On winning the IWC trophies, Pete Bentley, Sales and Marketing Manager, told us: ‘At Pikes we pride ourselves on the consistency, and continuity of our Riesling. The Riesling grape allows for very few, or zero faults, and has a transparency that many other grape varieties don’t have. The genius of our Traditionale Riesling is balance, in both style and rationality. The best free run juice marries with just enough residual sugar, and a wonderful spine of natural acid. The combination of the austere Polish Hill fruit, connecting with a lick of Watervale gives us lemon/lime, orange blossom and talcum powder on the nose, and slippery mandarin flavours on the palate, all cleaned up by crunchy acidity. We love drinking this wine, and we love that the IWC have acknowledged this Clare classic with two trophies. Sometimes it takes 32 years to become an overnight success.’

For the month of July you can receive a 10% discount on Riesling Traditionale and its red blend partner, Los Compañeros Shiraz/Tempranillo. Please enter code PIKE17 at checkout to take advantage of this offer.