05/07/2026
Symposium #15 - Ian Hongell from Torbreck
Riesling. Sigh…
I recently hosted a lunch in the Barossa Cellar, matching Emily Thomas’s Otherness food with a selection of our wines. It happened to be on International Riesling Day, so I included two different vintages of our Skuld Eden Valley Riesling: the 2020 and a pre-release of the (now current) 2024.
There were some indiscreet guffaws from the assembled guests when I admitted that nine out of every ten bottles of wine that I consume would be Riesling (and not big, seductive Shiraz!) Fortunately, two great Barossa winemakers, Louisa Rose and Chris Hatcher were also on the table, and both claimed that it would be even more than nine Rieslings per ten bottles for each of them. That was sufficient endorsement; the assembled guests suddenly shrugged off long-held prejudices and thirstily consumed every chilled bottle on the table. Over the next few days several of these rusted-on Shiraz drinkers made their way to Otherness to purchase a few bottles.
The Otherness Riesling journey began in 2017 when three wine men who I had known for years walked into fermentAsian: Ian Hongell, Andrew Tierney and Neil Pike. Ian informed me that day that he had just resigned as chief winemaker at Peter Lehmann’s and taken the top job at Torbreck. He explained the Torbreck focus on Rhone varieties meant that for white wines he would be working with Marsanne, Roussanne, Clarette, Viognier and Grenache Blanc. Ian confided that there was only one wine that gave him ‘goosebumps’ and that was Riesling. He told me that he had access to an amazing Riesling vineyard in high Eden and had the tank-space at Torbreck to make it there. He asked me that if he did craft a Riesling at Torbreck, could he release it as an Otherness wine. I jumped at the opportunity!
On Thursday this week we will examine each of the seven Skuld Riesling releases since the first 2018 vintage. Ian Hongell will lead the symposium in his own entertaining and informative style and will no doubt shed some light on changing viticultural and winemaking imperatives as we adapt to a rapidly warming world.
Booking link in bio
Ian Hongell
