The Cooter & Cooter Watervale Riesling 2025 is a bone-dry, high-acid white from the Watervale sub-region of South Australia's Clare Valley, built on lime and chalky minerality rather than weight. At 11.5% alcohol and just over a gram of residual sugar, it is a lean, tightly wound Riesling made for the table.

Aromatics lead with fresh lime juice and lemon rind, a touch of rose petal and green apple skin, and a flinty, wet-stone edge underneath. The 2025 growing season in Watervale was exceptionally dry and warm with rainfall around half the long-term average, and the fruit was hand-picked at night and cool-fermented over sixteen days, which shows in the wine's concentration and the clarity of its citrus.

Dry grown vines of around 29 years on red terra rossa over limestone give the palate real drive: firm natural acidity, a fine chalky grip through the middle, and a long, clean, unadorned finish. There is texture here as well as tension, so it does not come across as austere.

Pour it with Sydney rock oysters, salt and pepper squid, whiting fried in a light batter, or a green papaya salad with plenty of chilli and lime.

Drinking well now while the fruit is crunchy and primary, and with the acid line and low pH to reward a decade or more in the cellar, where it will turn towards toast, honey and lime marmalade.