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2023 Otherness ‘Urth’ Clare Valley Riesling x 1
2022 Otherness ‘Urth’ Clare Valley Riesling x 1
2021 Otherness ‘Urth’ Clare Valley Riesling x 1
2020 Otherness ‘Urth’ Clare Valley Riesling x 1
2019 Otherness ‘Urth’ Clare Valley Riesling x 1
2018 Otherness ‘Urth’ Clare Valley Riesling x 1
Winemakers: Neil Pike, Steve Baraglia & Andrew Kenny
Club De Locos
Otherness has established our mailing list as a food and wine club called Club de Locos, the Club of the Crazies.
You might not consider yourself in the least bit crazy and might be wondering why such a designation might have any appeal or advantage to you. Having been one of the sales and marketing team for many years at Rockford, I have observed the ways in which both members and brand can benefit if the offerings are real and tangible. Our food and wine club aims to provide unique access to micro-release wines, back vintages, dining and tasting experiences as well as food products to customers who have invested in the evolution of our fledging business.
We feel that we are uniquely placed to offer tiny releases of wines made in collaboration with highly respected winemakers who share a history and perspective with Otherness.
Every Urth
I remember the day in 2017 when Ian Hongell and Neil Pike were sitting on a table with Andrew Tierney at fermentAsian and we began fantasising about a collaborative Otherness Riesling. After several discussions over the ensuing weeks about possibilities, we ended up with two Riesling projects, both of which launched in 2018. Skuld was made with Ian at Torbreck using fruit from a single vineyard in Eden Valley; Urth was made with Neil Pike at Pikes using fruit from their Polish Hill vineyard.
Neil lives and breathes Riesling. In 2018, he was already busy leading the winemaking team at Pikes across a diverse portfolio of wines from Clare and the Adelaide Hills. Despite his commitments, he expressed an enthusiasm for engaging in some Riesling experimentation with Otherness.
We decided to make two wine components from fruit picked at the same time from Pike’s own slate-strewn vineyards – one inoculated with a neutral yeast and raised in stainless steel, the other wild-fermented in old chardonnay barrels.
At a subsequent taste-off, we would blend the two components, ensuring that the proportions of each provided a wine that was still classically pure and age-worthy, but which benefited from the deeper flavours derived from wild fermentation in barrel.
In the early days of the Urth collaboration, we played with micro-amounts of wine. Neil had a really small stainless-steel tank purpose-built, so that the inoculated component would remain super-tight, without ullage.
After Neil departed Pikes to establish Limefinger, Urth has been driven by Pikes chief winemaker Steve Baraglia and Andrew Kenny. Neil still examines each new wine at home on his kitchen table, and recently provided his thoughts about the post-Neil releases during a lunchtime visit to Otherness.
There are very few bottles of the earlier releases remaining in my cellar. Less than three dozen of the 2018, 2019 and 2020. Looking at the seven different vintages of Urth in bottle, (2024 will be released in 2026) I can say that I am profoundly happy with the progression of a uniquely styled expression of my favourite grape variety.
It has also been heartening to witness the enjoyment of these wines by journalists and many of my winemaker mates.
Here are a few of my impressions of each of the wines, as tasted in March 2025:
2018 I look for the tell-tale signs of bottle age in this wine and struggle to find them. The acid still ploughs a furrow down the centre of the tongue, flavours are still fresh with just the earliest encroachment of toasty secondaries. In fact, flavours of citrus and stone are still tightly coiled. Muted. Quietly neutral. I would be holding this for at least another five years. A vintage of Urth that’s poised to achieve Riesling greatness. Drink 2028-2045
2019 A warmer vintage has created a deeper, more developed expression of Urth. Although the colour is still pale and a few remnant bubbles of CO2 still punctuate the surface, the lime-marmalade aromas are infused with biscuity notes, beeswax and lanolin. I love this richer expression of Urth now, especially with food. It’s perfect with roast chicken. Drink 2024- 2029
2020 Pikes hit the jackpot in 2020 with their Rieslings. The flagship Merle is outstanding. The 2020 Urth shares some of Merle’s almost buttery mouthfeel and lime and butterscotch aromatics, but flavours are underpinned by an exciting tug of mineral acidity. Different citrus elements vie for dominance: there’s the classic lime and a surprising orange blossom note. An exciting and exotic Riesling that is a delight to drink now but will hold. Drink 2025-2030
2021 The first of three consecutive La Niña vintages, and the wine is zesty, tangy and spring-loaded for a long future in bottle. Aromatically, the barrel component (at least at this stage) is surprisingly forward, but across the palate the undertow of lime-wash, kafir lime leaf and lemon storms the oral defences and pleasantly pummels the gums, lingering in mouth and memory. Exciting wine. Drink 2027-2050
2022 Classic. Embryonic. This is one for the future. It’s long, brightly lit and exciting to drink right now, especially as an aperitif. The classic cool La Niña vintage has brought undercurrents of fennel fronds to the expected lime and lemon pith, but I’ll be excited to observe its glacial evolution over the next twenty years. Drink 2028-2055.
2023 Despite being from another cool La Niña vintage, the 2023 Urth always expressed a deeper, richer flavour profile, to the extent that we reduced the wild-ferment component within the blend to enhance the acidic drive within the wine. Neil Pike recently anointed this wine as the crowd-pleaser within the line-up. There’s plenty of the classic Bickford’s lime and calamansi citrussy freshness, Easter lilies and elderflower. Drink 2025-2045.
We are happy to offer just twelve Every-Urth six-packs which will only be available to our Club de Locos members, many of whom were drawn to Otherness due to a shared loved of Riesling.
Cheers for your ongoing support!
