2025 Shy Susan Riesling
**New Shy Susan Wines and new vintages released with the next Shy Susan Wine Club annually in September!
“Shy Susan (Tetratheca gunnii) is a critically endangered Australian wildflower. Her survival depends completely on a little native bee, who alone is capable of pollination. Their fate is forever entwined”.
After working with Tasmanian fruit for nearly two decades Glenn James with his wife, Jo Marsh began crafting wines under their newly created Shy Susan label in 2015. The couple lived in Porepunkah in the Alpine Valleys region and Glenn commuted to Tasmania weekly for his role as Chief Winemaker at Winemaking Tasmania. When Jo fell pregnant in late 2019 Glenn made the decision to leave his role and work fulltime with Jo in the Alpine Valleys. Having many years to experience the quality of fruit the Alpine Valleys had to offer they decided to continue the Shy Susan brand with local fruit. Select small parcels of fruit are crafted to reflect variety, vineyard and the stylistic approach forged from Glenn’s skill and experience.
The Whitlands High Plateau is located on the Western side of the King Valley in North-East Victoria and is officially part of the King Valley GI. The plateau is unique in its elevation, rainfall and climate. Bracingly cool compared to the warmer valley floors of the King Valley, the Whitlands is genuinely cold, resulting in a long ripening period perfect for producing Riesling with great natural acidity, layers of flavour and undeniable presence. Sourced from Kevin Croucher, the vineyard was planted in the early 1990’s and is 780m above sea level.
Vintage Snapshot
Picked towards the end of April, this site is some of the last fruit to come into the winery. Despite most of the north-east weathering very warm conditions towards the end of vintage this cool site maintained beautiful clarity of fruit.
Production Notes
Hand-picked, the fruit was lightly crushed before gentle pressing to tank, with pressings included for structure and flavour. Racked off juice solids to seasoned oak the juice was inoculated with selected yeast and fermented until stopped at desired sugar. Once complete a period of maturation on the yeast lees allowed the wine to further develop texture.
Technical details
Reviews
"Sourced from Croucher vineyard, Whitlands. Picked late, fermented in old, large-format oak, RS 3g/L. Whitlands offers some of the highest-altitude-grown riesling in the state, so there is an immediate precision in flavour and acidity. While still essentially off-dry, the decision to reduce the level of RS is most welcome, bringing with it an important sense of cool-climate beauty, an alpine floral prettiness in apple blossom, citrus, bath powder and spice with tangy lime and green apple. Elegant, it coats the mouth in a fleshy, inviting texture, finishing on a note of candied lime rind. Tasted well before release, it can only improve with age." Awarded 93+ points, Halliday Wine Companion, Jeni Port - Published 20 August 2026
"Super-stylish, off-dry riesling from the King Valley's highest, coolest vineyard point, Whitlands. It's all class with aromatic complexity on show in white flowers and apple blossom aromas, flinty minerals, citrus and apple. A seamless entry on the palate heralds a wine that is tangy and spice-lined in lime pith, candied lemon, spiced apple and citrus. A smooth texture and carries long." Awarded 93 points, Halliday Wine Companion, Jeni Port - Published 17 August 2026