Great Southern wines toasted in Ray Jordan’s top 100 whites

WA wine guru Ray Jordan has released his top 100 whites, sparklings and rosés for 2020 and the Great Southern is well represented. More than 550 wines were judged, with Frankland River’s Alkoomi Wines among the region’s best performers. In the $15-$20 category, one third of the wines named came from wineries in the Great Southern. Alkoomi’s White Label riesling 2020 and Castelli’s The Sum riesling 2019 were the only two rieslings named in this category, with scores of 92 and 91 respectively. Jordan described the Alkoomi wine as one of the best rieslings he had encountered at the white label level. Alkoomi chief winemaker Andrew Cherry said their White Label riesling was increasingly popular and selling out earlier each year. “We make this wine in a more fruit-driven, textural style with estate-grown fruit from our vineyard in Frankland River,” he said. “Alkoomi has always over-delivered on quality for price, so we are chuffed.” Wignalls had two wines named in the $15-$20 category, with its Single Vineyard sauvignon blanc earning 91 points and Single Vineyard chardonnay scoring 90, both from the 2020 vintage. West Cape Howe’s semillon sauvignon blanc 2020 scored 88 in the blends category. In the $20-$25 category, there were two stand-out wineries from the Great Southern, which each had two wines named — Forest Hill and Singlefile. Forest Hill’s Highbury Fields chardonnay 2019 — an “excellent wine and great value”, according to Jordan — had the equal-top score of 94 points. Forest Hill’s Highbury Fields sauvignon blanc 2020 scored 90. Singlefile’s Great Southern riesling scored 93, while the Run Free sauvignon blanc managed 90 points. Forest Hill and Singlefile also had one wine each named in the $25-$40 category. Singlefile’s Single Vineyard fume blanc 2020 and Forest Hill’s riesling 2020 scored an impressive 94, as did K+B’s Great Southern riesling 2020. Castelli’s The Sum rosé 2020 was the region’s only rosé to make the top 100 with 90 points.