‘Clausen is not easily scared. He pulled together a crack team and got to work’
On his first visit as owner he picked up the keys and a to-do list of daunting length organised by priority and spread over decades so as not to scare him.
Nostalgia, that sappiest of sentiments, can make us do funny things. Like buy a winery on the other side of the world for no better reason than the fondly fading memories you had of going there as a kid.
Simon Clausen, now a highly successful tech entrepreneur based in Switzerland, is not exactly the impulsive type. But when he saw Clare Valley institution Skillogalee hit the market, the considered approach to business that had served him so well evaporated and the kid he once was came back to sign the cheque. When he was growing up in Adelaide, his parents had a B&B in Armagh at the northern end of the Clare and weekend trips with a car full of child labour to change sheets and lay out little soaps would conclude with late lunches among the vines at Skillogalee.
Clausen is not alone in having a rich library of Skillogalee memories – many do, including me, even if mine stretch further back into the 1980s than his. The large terraced vineyard carved out of the bush, the rustic restaurant in a cottage seemingly built for hobbits, the gardens full of free-ranging kids, shaped their notion of what life in a wine region could be. But what Clausen bought was not exactly the Skillogalee of his childhood memories. Its founders were tiring; the place was too.
On his first visit as owner he picked up the keys and a to-do list of daunting length organised by priority and spread over decades so as not to scare him. But Clausen is not easily scared. He pulled together a crack team and got to work. An enormous amount has been done in the vineyard and winery, led by Kerri Thompson and Brendan “Smiley” Pudney; the restaurant has collected top culinary talent Guy Parkinson and Dan Moss, and is humming. There’s always more to do, but Clausen has polished up this jewel so it sparkles.
SKILLOGALEE ESTATE RIESLING 2024
$30
If you want to check on the wellbeing of a Clare Valley winery, you feel for a pulse in its riesling – and this new release from the exceptional 2024 vintage shows ‘Skilly’ to be in rude health. Effusive lime zest and jasmine blossom aromatics, a pure and precise acid line and a refreshing crystalline crunch through the finish.
12% alcohol, 93 points
SKILLOGALEE GEWURZTRAMINER 2024
$35
A less nostalgic owner may have sent a curio like this to the chopping block but Clausen’s love for Skillogalee’s past allows it to not only survive, but shine. There’s plenty of spice and ebullient perfume, delivered with freshness and vitality that stops it short of a caricature that these wines can become. The list of great Australian gewürztraminer isn’t long, but this sits at the top of it.
13% alcohol, 92 points
SKILLOGALEE TREVARRICK RIESLING 2024
$55
The finest riesling off the property emphatically speaks of the most elevated, slowest ripening contours of the vineyard. It’s powerful and precise, a wine of deep-set citrus characters and distinctive hits of bush blossoms. A long, undeviating acid line points to a long, rewarding future in the cellar.
12% alcohol, 95 points