Rieslingfreak: Taking a diverse approach to a multifaceted grape

The idea of Rieslingfreak seems absurd – an Australian winery that produces only Riesling wines, and up to 19 styles each vintage that focus on various different sites, blends and winemaking techniques.

However, the execution of this grand idea over the past 15 years by husband-and-wife winemaking team John and Belinda Hughes shows a spark of focused genius that has made Rieslingfreak a beacon for quality, innovation and excellence in Australian Riesling.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for eight fabulous Rieslings from Rieslingfreak

A family affair

When Rieslingfreak began in 2009, it had a very simple premise – for John to create a Riesling that best defined his parents’ vineyard at White Hut (John prefers the location’s alternative spelling, White Hutt), just north of Clare in South Australia.

They grow Riesling grapes that were traditionally sold to other producers and then blended into generic wines. John wanted to honour his parents with a wine that spoke specifically of their site and carry a label that clearly acknowledged its provenance.

Today, John takes most of the fruit from the five Riesling blocks, and his parents only tend to sell the fruit that is judged to be below Rieslingfreak standard, which depends on each vintage.

‘It was a pretty straightforward idea, but one Riesling was never going to be enough,’ says John, who was given the nickname ‘Riesling Freak’ during his university years, as a nod to his obsession.

‘I had so many ideas in my head, and so many styles of Riesling that I adore. I wanted to make them all, and I couldn’t see any good reason why not.’

So Rieslingfreak has grown, and grown, to now produce more than 144,000 bottles – not only to satisfy John and Belinda’s fascination with Riesling, but also to meet growing consumer demand that escalated after the 2017 Rieslingfreak No. 3 (from Huighes’ White Hut vineyard) won five trophies at the 2017 Sydney Royal Wine Show, including Best Wine of Show.

‘Riesling is a grape that allows – and deserves – many different types of expression,’ says John. ‘So that’s what we’ve done over many vintages, and every style deserves its place.’

Laser focus

John’s journey to realise this moment has been complicated. Born with mild cerebral palsy, which affects his coordination, mobility and speech, John has patiently and diligently set his mind to pursue winemaking with the astute precision that Riesling demands.

After completing a degree in wine marketing at the University of Adelaide, he worked as a technical analyst at the Australian Wine Research Institute for a decade, also travelling through regions in France and Italy to expand his knowledge before returning to the Barossa to work as production winemaker with the renowned Chris Ringland at North Barossa Vintners.

Only then, with considerable knowledge and experience to his credit, did he take the plunge to make his first wine under the Rieslingfreak label.

‘Growing up on an old Riesling vineyard at Penwortham in the Clare Valley and having my old man’s cellar full of aged Rieslings from throughout the world started my appreciation of the Riesling grape at a young age,’ recalls John.

‘Once my parents moved to White Hut in 1998, a big vineyard with five different Riesling sites, each with a different soil profile, I realised this was the resource I could use to start exploring all those different Riesling styles.’

In pursuit of a broad palette

He has a very capable ally in Belinda, whose relationship with John flourished at the annual International Riesling Challenge in Canberra, due to their shared infatuation with Riesling.

In 2021, after almost 15 years of making white wines for Grant Burge in the Barossa, Belinda joined John at Rieslingfreak, and now their great challenge is to see who gets to work with their favourite vineyard sites from across the Clare Valley and Eden Valley, vineyards which are both family and privately owned, each offering particular and distinctive characteristics.

This has seen them explore a variety of styles, far beyond the expected bone-dry Australian expression of Riesling. They make sparkling Riesling, a fortified, several sub-regional expressions with bottle age, and two regional blends designed specifically as export labels to appease growing US and UK interest – No. 33, featuring a meld of North Clare and Polish Hill River fruit, and No. 44, featuring three Eden Valley sites.

John’s personal favourites are the No. 5 Off Dry Riesling and the German-inspired No. 8 Schatzkammer (modelled on a Kabinett style), which show off his masterful judgement to balance sugar and acid in rich, textural styles that pursue a distinctive Rieslingfreak personality rather than simply mimic German benchmarks.

These two were presented during a special tasting which celebrated the July 2024 opening of a new cellar door just outside Tanunda in the Barossa Valley.

An occasion fit for the Queen of grapes

The bespoke tasting room has been designed as a temple devoted to Riesling, with its lofty cathedral ceiling and towering glass windows allowing maximum daylight to best examine the fragile colours of Riesling in the glass.

Imbedded green glass shards from broken Riesling bottles add a dazzling emerald sparkle to the polished concrete floor. Crucially, this large space with four spacious long table settings can accommodate growing demand for Rieslingfreak’s tutored tasting sessions.

John used the occasion to present a decade of the best Rielsingfreak wines, to study their endurance and staying power after time in the cellar. The array of wines tasted was extraordinary, led by a 10-year vertical of No. 2 Polish Hill River Riesling.

He also shone a light on his flagship wine, Rieslingfreak No. 1 (also known as Grounds of Grandeur Riesling), featuring hand-picked grapes from the best four rows of his parents’ White Hut vineyard, chilled for two days, then whole-bunch pressed, fermented with wild yeast and stored for 20 months in a bespoke 1,500-litre oak cask before bottling.

It now stands as an Australian benchmark with its AU$110 (£56) price tag – and the current-release (2020 vintage) shows its pedigree proudly, amplifying richness, complex textural quality, a meld of savoury and sharp citrus notes, and extraordinary length.

John is as complex as the wines he makes. An enthusiastic and fastidious cook, he entered Australia MasterChef in 2011, only to withhold a dish from the judges because it failed to meet his own exacting standards. He’s generous to a fault, yet unyielding in his assessment of excellence.

And while he’s uncomfortable if any fuss is made of his disability, he is a champion of disability support, having founded the Kicking Goals Scholarship programme that provides mentorship and educational funding for young people living with a disability.

‘I’m quite happy being the Rieslingfreak,’ he offers with a gentle smile. ‘And I’m delighted to be presenting a very different story about the diversity of fine Australian Riesling.’

David Sly’s pick of Rieslingfreak:

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