Neo-wowsers rejoice!
No longer do you have to put up with flaccid, weird-tasting, de-alcoholised wine to prop up your credentials as a member of the wellness-loving sobriety set.
The wine you have been looking for has been hiding in plain sight all this time: Riesling.
Riesling is Australia’s OG winemaker’s wine. Not because it needs lots of love in the winery with lees, oak, racking, reduction and other winemakers’ tricks. Indeed, apart from careful handling, cool fermentation and a dash of SO2 to keep the oxygen away, Riesling is pretty straightforward.
But what it has in abundance is acid. Lots of it. And, better still, a phenolic structure that retains that acid all the way through the grape’s ripening spectrum. That gives winemakers huge latitude to produce great Rieslings that range from bone-dry to lusciously sweet.
It’s the former style that Australian Rieslings are most famous for and the best of them typically come from South Australia’s Clare and Eden Valleys. Their intense flavours of lime and lemon are the perfect refreshment on Australia’s hot summer days. They can also cellar for decades – gaining honey, toast and kerosene characteristics with age.
Happily, for the 21st Century’s no-lo crowd, the trademark dry style of those regions is also one that offers naturally low alcohol levels.
The 2025 vintage in South Australia seems to have accentuated this characteristic. Described as a warm, dry and early, the conditions helped the late-ripening Riesling achieve flavour development at very low sugar levels.
This, in turn, has meant that the 2025 Clare Valley Rieslings we’ve seen on the shelves have alcohol of just 11%. The stated alcohol by volume (ABV) of our top-ranked Riesling is a remarkable 10.5%. That compares with shiraz from the same regions which can routinely tip over 14.5%.
No wonder Australian winemakers jokingly refer to Riesling as “sports drink”.
Wine shows covered by us in 2025 assessed 1614 Australian Riesling exhibits across 729 individual labels.
Eden Valley stood out as the best performing region. Although its four examples numbered fewer than the six from Clare Valley in our Top 20, the Barossa satellite accounted for this year’s top Riesling and boasted a higher overall average and better consistency than its northern competitor.
Unusually, Tasmania produced just one of this year’s top 20 rieslings. This was despite the island state enjoying similar growing season conditions to South Australia and a consecutive year of strong yields overall. Moreover, Riesling is the state’s fifth biggest grape by crush. That compares with its national ranking of just thirteenth by crush.
The top 20 Australian rieslings shown last year are listed below. The Top 10 can be found at https://mattsays.substack.com
| MATT'S SCORE | BEST RIESLING | TROPHIES | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | PRICE (AUD) | TASTING NOTE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97.97 | #1 Eden Valley Riesling 2025 |  | 4 | 4 | - | - | $39 | Aromas are intensely fragrant. Bath salts, Christmas lilies, pastille, feijoa and sweet citrus fruits express the wine's Eden Valley regionality, The palate is flavoursome and layered with feijoa, green apple, pastille and pomelo citrus notes, complemented with spring bulb floral nuances. The tightly woven chalky acidity gives drive and a succulent balance. - Producer |
| 96.9 | #2 Clare Valley Riesling 2024 | | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | $39 | |
| 96.6 | #3 Eden Valley Riesling 2024 | | 1 | 3 | - | - | $39 | |
| 96.34 | #4 Eden Valley Riesling 2022 | | - | 3 | 1 | - | n/a | |
| 96.23 | #5 Limestone Coast Riesling 2025 | | - | - | 2 | 2 | $25 | Pale straw colour with lifted lime zest and red apple blossom aromas. The palate is refreshing with upfront fruit characters of grapefruit and red apple balanced beautifully with crisp acidity - Producer |
| 95.97 | #6 Clare Valley Riesling 2023 | | - | 2 | - | - | $14 | This elegant Riesling is bone dry with refreshing acidity and mouth-watering flavours of tangy lemon and lime. |
| 95.9 | #7 Rutherglen Riesling 2025 | | - | 2 | - | - | $25 | A classic Riesling nose with citrus blossom, lime leaf and exotic jasmine. The palate continues with crisp, zesty citrus lines, building to fleshy Meyer lemon and faint grapefruit bitters. Long and linear with spicy acidity and subtle wet stone/mineral mouthfeel through the finish. - Producer |
| 95.79 | #8 Clare Valley Riesling 2025 | | 1 | 2 | - | - | $45 | |
| 95.74 | #9 Henty Riesling 2025 | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | $33 | A green-gold coloured wine with an expressive bouquet of citrus fruit and blossom and herbal characters. The palate is dry and intense with some fleshy fruit notes adding to the more typical lemon and lime flavours. The finish is refreshing and long. |
| 95.64 | #10 Grampians Riesling 2024 | | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | $35 | Critics note a delicate bouquet of fresh citrus and apple along with pepper and ginger aromas. The dry palate is dominated by citrus and mineral notes although one writer expresses reservations about flavour intensity and length. |
| 95.17 | Jim Barry Barry and Sons Riesling 2025 |  | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | $25 | A pale lemon quartz colour gives way to intensely lime-dominated aromas and flavours. The palate is delicate and balanced but perhaps pulls up a bit short despite the crisp finish. - Mattsays |
| 95.11 | Best's Great Western Riesling 2025 |  | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | $22 | Aromas are vibrant and complex-lime, red apple, citrus, orange blossom, honeysuckle, jasmine, nashi pear, and slatey minerals. The palate is dry, lively, and concentrated, with lime, citrus, apple, grapefruit pith, and spice, underscored by racy acidity and a powdery texture. The finish is long, dry, and zippy. |
| 95.03 | Jim Barry Watervale Riesling 2025 |  | - | 3 | 5 | 2 | $20 | Pale lemon colour with the most intense bouquet of the three Jim Barry Rieslings tasted featuring lime, lemon and grapefruit pith. Green apple flavours restrain the wine's typical citrus dominance. Just 11% alcohol. - Mattsays |
| 94.99 | Castle Rock "Estate" Riesling 2024 |  | - | 1 | 3 | 1 | $32 | Light, pale lemon in colour with an elegant and refreshing nose of crushed lime leaf and citrus blossom. The palate exhibits superb balance and delicacy. Lime cordial and curry leaf. A super fine, delicate acid line drives an exceptionally long finish - Producer |
| 94.99 | Pikes Traditionale Riesling 2024 |  | - | 1 | 1 | - | $26 | The colour is a brilliant pale straw with green hues. It has bright expressive aromas of perfume, citrus blossom and fresh lime which dominate with a talcy mineral note evident. It is a crisp acid driven wine, with plenty of fresh lime and other citrus flavours. - Retailer |
| 94.95 | Pikes Traditionale Riesling 2025 | | - | 1 | 3 | - | $29 | Perfumed lemon blossom aromas with zest of lime, granny smith apples, under-ripe white stone fruit. The palate is immediately approachable with lashings of fresh lime juice edging towards lime cordial. The wine is finely balanced with generous fruit, taught acid line and minerality drawing out the finish. - Producer |
| 94.91 | Naked Run Place in Time Sevenhill Riesling 2020 |  | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | $45 | A developed, golden-straw wine showing toasty, honeyed complexity alongside citrus-driven freshness: lemon zest, orange peel, white peach, and hints of kerosene. Floral notes (honeysuckle, flower shop) add lift. The palate delivers good intensity and thrust, with lemon-acid drive, balanced honey, an attractive bitter finish and reasonable length |
| 94.9 | Grant Burge Thorn Eden Valley Riesling 2024 |  | - | 3 | 2 | 4 | $27 | This riesling offers classic intense citrus and floral aromatics with hints of slate on the nose. Rich fresh limes and citrus are all prominent on the palate, driven by a racy natural acidity and linear minerality giving a long, lingering finish. - Producer |
| 94.83 | Tamar Ridge Riesling 2024 |  | - | 2 | 1 | 1 | $32 | Pale, crystalline riesling with lime, green apple and subtle blossom aromas. This delicate, low alcohol wine delivers pure lemon lime fruit over a stony, briny core that leads to a crisp, dry finish. |
| 94.8 | Tomfoolery Cut N' Run Riesling 2025 |  | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | $25 | Clear straw colour with lime citrus, spice and mineral aromas. The palate is delicately weighted with upfront Bickford lime juice, bursts of acidity with juicy fruit and solid rocky back bone to go the journey. |