Skillogalee Awards

Below are a small selection of the awards won by Skillogalee over the recent years. While we are always very honoured to receive any accolade our biggest reward are our returning customers that have enjoyed the Skillogalee wines and restaurant for many decades.

Gourmet Traveller WINE

STAR CELLAR DOOR & BEST ACCOMMODATION

Skillogalee is honoured to have been awarded for the fourth time in the annual Australia’s Best Cellar Door Awards from Gourmet Traveller Wine. This is a fantastic achievement for the Cellar Door & Restaurant, especially with such an impressive range of competition here in the Clare Valley. We are incredibly proud of providing great quality produce, wines and service all within a building with such great character and ambience.

Other awards from Gourmet Traveller Wine include the Clare Valley’s ‘Cellar Door with Best Food’ in 2015, 2016 & 2017.

Click here to read the review.

South Australian Tourism Champion

Skillogalee is honoured to be named the South Australian Tourism Champion 2018. Our team strives to offer the very best service every day and we also proud to support quality local products and produce, where possible, while buying South Australian for what can not be sourced in the Clare Valley.

Skillogalee will continue to build on its strengths and keep focus on service excellence.

Click here to watch the video.

Great Wine Capitals, Best Of Wine

2017 Regional Winner

The Great Wine Capitals Best Of Wine Tourism Awards celebrate innovation and excellence in wine tourism throughout the nine greatest wine regions in the world.

Judges’ Comments: Skillogalee offers a wonderful family story, with an approach to personalised customer service that is second to none. Importantly, it is an experience that typifies South Australia and has proven to be very competitive on the international stage.

Click here to read the review.

Matthew Jukes Best 100 Australian Wines 2016/17

2012 Skillogalee, Trevarrick Riesling, Clare Valley, SA

“Trevarrick is a limited release wine which is so serious and all-consuming that I do not hesitate for a moment in declaring it is one the the world’s most arresting dry Rieslings. That the price manages to keep its feet on the ground is so wonderous that I want to give the Palmer family a team hug every single day. The power and intensity of this majestic wine is considerable. The minerality, coming as it does from individual contour blocks or seams of vines planted on mean, stony Dolomite soils, is incredible. At 500m these blocks are picked first and the flavours are pristine, crystalline and piercing. I looked at a 2010 vintage the other day and it was starting to soften and fill out and it obliterated two (absolutely tiptop) Alsatian Rieslings with its personality and class. Below this leviathan you will find the 2013 and 2014 vintages of the amazing estate Riesling on the shelves they both look superb. This is a property which also makes one of a handful of Australia’s most seductive Gewurtztraminers. So, looking ahead, 2015 Riesling and 2015 Gewurtztraminer will appear this side of Christmas and you will be relieved to hear that these are, not surprisingly, spectacular creations.”

Matthew Jukes Best 100 Wines

The Skillogalee aromatic division has taken a year off in this 100 Best, and while there are plenty of Rieslings in this list there is no Gewurztraminer so I must apologise for that. If there was one out there with an elite flavour it would be on these pages, but none have crossed my path. Not to worry, because two different Skilly wines have made the grade.

2012 Skillogalee, Basket Pressed Shiraz is a star-player counterpointing a discreet 13% alcohol with masses of juicy, plummy fruit. There is gentle American and French oak used here and it’s the levity and brightness of mulberry-scented fruit which really stands out. With a score of 18.5/20 in my notes this is one of the greatest reds I have tasted from the Palmers’ idyllic Domaine.

NV Skillogalee, Liqueur Muscat  My featured wine is the mind-bending Liqueur Muscat which unlike many is a dry offering with lashings of tannin on board to cut the intensity of the palate. This makes it a very grown up after-dinner wine indeed with a palate shaped like a 20 year old Tawny Port but flavoured like a more luxurious, traditional Liqueur Muscat. I love it and you will adore the presentation, too. It sits on the table like a little general commanding the troops!

James Halliday’s Wine Companion 2016

James Halliday’s Wine Companion has been released for 2016 and we have a whopping eight wines featured! Our two Trevarrick reds from 2012 have scored impressively and Skillogalee has been awarded a 5 Star Winery for another year.

97 Points – 2012 Trevarrick Single Contour Clare Valley Shiraz

94 Points – 2012 Trevarrick Single Contour Clare Valley Cabernet Franc

93 Points – 2014 Clare Valley Riesling

93 Points – 2012 Basket Pressed Clare Valley The Cabernets

92 Points – 2012 Basket Pressed Clare Valley Shiraz

92 Points – 2012 Take Two Basket Pressed Clare Valley Shiraz Cabernet

91 Points – 2014 Malbec Cabernet Rose

89 Points – 2014 Clare Valley Gewurtztraminer

The Advertiser’s Top 100 Wines

Clare Valley Riesling 2014

“Dave Palmer has carved a great reputation for both his refined rieslings west of Sevenhill — and his full-flavoured reds too, for that matter. This is one pure and precise Clare riesling with all its pristine citrus and apple fruit elements inviting you into a refreshing, salivating, seafood friendly wine that tingles the palate but doesn’t attack it with overt acidity. It finishes dry, talc-dusty and simply deliciously.” ★★★★

Basket Pressed The Cabernets 2012

“A much loved combo of cabernet sauvignon, malbec and cabernet franc, the first two great partners in Clare while this takes in a bit more of the redder berry spectrum from the cab franc to present like a fruits of the forest salad, squished to a juicy pulp with just enough back up from oak, acidity and tannin coating to drive an in-built fruit energy and not mask it. A bright-eyed blend with plenty of vibrant soul.” ★★★★1/2

Wine Business Magazine – November 2014

Trevarrick Single Contour Clare Valley Shiraz 2012

95 Points – Tyson Stelzer

There is an immediacy and a calm confidence to this release. Impressive depth of succulent black cherry and black plum fruit is framed by luscious dark chocolate oak. The mineral structure of limestone subsoils defines superfine tannins.

Basket Pressed Clare Valley Shiraz 2012

94 Points – Tyson Stelzer

There is an understated elegance, a subtle perfume and an effortless persistence to this vintage, yet wrapped into its folds are beautifully-defined black fruits. It’s gentle and comfortably poised, ready to drink right away.

Clare Valley Gewurtztraminer 2014

93 Points – Tyson Stelzer

A Gewurtztraminer of texture and complexity, refreshingly reserved and contemplative. Texture is fine and well gauged with carefully placed, soft phenolic character and fine, high altitude acidity.

The Cabernets Basket Pressed Clare Valley 2012

93 Points – Tyson Stelzer

Lively, lifted and fruitful with fragrant violet perfume and crunchy black fruits and mint. It’s medium bodied, lively and crunchy, declaring its high altitude provenance, finishing long and well structured with firm, fine tannins.

James Halliday’s Top 100 Wines 2014

James Halliday has picked his best of the best wines for 2014 and our 2012 Trevarrick Single Contour Shiraz has been awarded 97 points and a spot in the prestigious Top 100.

For the category of Best Red Wines Over $20 there were just 20 wines selected from 716 submitted from around Australia. Skillogalee was the single Clare Valley winery to feature in the impressive line-up. Congratulations to Grosset who was the only other winery to have a wine feature in the Top 100, their 2014 Polish Hill Riesling was picked in the Best White Wines over $20.

James Halliday’s wine tasting note – 2012 Trevarrick Single Contour Shiraz

Deep, dense crimson-purple; estate-grown, from the hillside vines planted in ’70. A wine of great class and elegance, with an utterly seductive array of red and black cherry fruits, spice and pepper on its bouquet, precisely repeated on the supply, juicy, silky medium-bodied palate. So easy to enjoy now, most will be long since consumed prior to its notional best-by date.

Clare Valley Wine Show

Gold Medal – Skillogalee Late Harvest Riesling 2014

South Australian Regional Awards

Skillogalee were thrilled to receive the Primary Industries and Regions South Australia Regional Wine Award at The Yorke & Mid North South Australian Regional Awards in October. This award focuses on recognising successful businesses who operate with a strong focus on sustainability, something Skillogalee holds in high regard.

Adelaide Royal Wine Show 2014

Bronze Medal – Skillogalee Clare Valley Riesling 2014

Perth Royal Wine Show 2014

Gold Medal – Skillogalee Gewurtztraminer 2014

Bronze Medal – Skillogalee The Cabernets 2012

James Halliday Wine Companion 2015

James Halliday’s Wine Companion reviews for 2015 have been released and Skillogalee was announced a 5 Star Winery for another year! We are exceptionally proud to share this achievement with you all along with some great wine ratings and reviews of past and present vintages.

96 Points – 2010 Basket Pressed Clare Valley The Cabernets

94 Points – 2012 Trevarrick Single Contour Clare Valley Riesling

94 Points – 2010 Take Two Basket Pressed Clare Valley Shiraz Cabernet

92 Points – 2013 Cabernet Malbec Rose

91 Points – 2013 Clare Valley Gewurztraminer

90 Points – 2013 Clare Valley Riesling

2014 Decanter World Wine Awards – London

Gold Medal – 2010 Shiraz

Elegant on the nose with red cherries and sweet fruits complemented by a touch of spice and spearmint. A savoury palate with bright acidity and menthol notes providing a fresh mouthfeel. The wine is graceful with a very long and linear finish.
 
Bronze Medals – 2012 Riesling; 2012 Trevarrick Riesling; NV Liqueur Muscat

Commended – 2010 Cabernets

Read more here: http://www.decanter.com/dwwa/search?producerCountry=5&producer=Skillogalee

Matthew Jukes Best 100 Australian Wines for 2012 Skillogalee, Trevarrick Single Contour Riesling, Clare Valley, SA

 
“If time stopped for a moment at 7pm on 3rd June 2014, right in the middle of the launch of this list at Australia House, I feel certain it would be the greatest moment in Skillogalee’s history so far.  Because, at this precise moment, 2012 Trevarrick (my featured wine), 2013 Skillogalee Gewurztraminer and 2013 Skillogalee Riesling will all be in the market and available for purchase and this means that the finest three stars that this incredible estate has ever produced will all align.

It’s rare for two wines in a portfolio to crisscross like this, regardless of vintage, but for three it is incredible.  2012 Trevarrick is set to be a legendary wine.

Skillogalee 2010 Riesling 5 Stars from Decanter

Australian Riesling is infinitely superior to New Zealand’s, according to a Decanter panel of eight New World Riesling experts.