Petaluma reveals six new wines for its 2022 Global Vintage Release

Australian winery Petaluma has unveiled its 2022 Global Vintage Release, featuring six wines across its 2016, 2019 and 2021 vintages.

Teresa Heuzendoeder, who recently joined Petaluma as senior winemaker following 26 years at Yalumba, said: “This year’s release features outstanding wines from Australia’s most distinguished vineyards, including expressions of some near perfect vintages that have received some of the highest scores we’ve ever seen across a release. The quality of this release is testament not only to the careful selection of sites and varieties, and the meticulous care of the vineyards. It is also due to the sensitive handling of the vintage conditions; some of which are the best we’ve seen.”

Petaluma, which was originally founded in 1976 to produce ultra-premium wines using an Old World approach, has since carved out a reputation for creating cool-climate modern Australian wines made from grapes in the Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills and Clare Valley.

Heuzendoeder explained how “the Petaluma 2022 Global Vintage Release is comprised of six wines across three vintages (2021, 2019, 2016). The wines come from the iconic regions at the foundation of Petaluma’s distinguished vineyards philosophy; the Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills and Coonawarra”.

According to Heuzendoeder: “The 2021 vintage has been regarded by many as near perfect” and added that “the releases from this year – the Petaluma Hanlin Hill Clare Valley Riesling 2021 and Petaluma Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2021 – reflect the wonderful season showing a restrained elegance and fine natural acid drive” and hinted that each are “superb expressions upon release” and yet it is anticipated that, additionally, “they will evolve and unravel marvellous complexity with age”.

She also outlined how “the 2019 vintage was low yielding, producing wines with intense fruit flavours, structure and concentration that are clear in the Petaluma Tiers Chardonnay 2019 and Petaluma B&V Vineyard Shiraz 2019 from the Adelaide Hills, and Petaluma Merlot 2019 from Coonawarra” and added highlighted the Petaluma Evans Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 for its “outstanding site and variety selection” and described it as “medium bodied with defined tannin structure and depth of flavour”.

Heuzendoeder recently hosted a tasting of the winery’s six new release wines, together with selected back vintages. At the UK tasting, Heuzendoeder showcased wines including: Petaluma Yellow Label B&V Vineyard Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2019, Petaluma Yellow Label Coonawarra Cabernet Merlot 2016, Petaluma Yellow Label Coonawarra Merlot 2019, Petaluma Yellow Label Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay 2021, Petaluma Yellow Label Hanlin Hill Riesling 2021 and Petaluma Tiers Chardonnay 2019.

During her talk, Heuzendoeder described joining Petaluma and how winemaking was as much about respecting site heritage, the historical aspect of planting in certain vines in specific regions as well as recognising the skill set of previous winemakers who have preceded her role.

Heuzendoeder revealed that Australian wine “was still a fairly young white wine-making entity back in those days when Petaluma was first established” and explained that, “it seems obvious to talk about how to really drill down into special sites, but that’s part of what we are doing in Australia now” but, she admitted “back then, that [planting region specific varieties] was a really big and unusual thing in the industry” pointing out that we have to respect, admire and feel gratitude for wineries such as Petaluma that showed the benefits of this. “We have to thank this winery for a lot of things that we very much take for granted in the Australian wine industry now,” she said, and added: “I will always respect what has gone before”.

She also discussed the merits of Australian wine and its consistency each year that was synonymous with quality and explained: “We were very blessed to have very consistent high quality vintages. We don’t have the vagaries of some other regions” and added: “When you have distinguished sites, they are the sites that will deliver time and time again because you have that great synergy of region and variety”.