Rieslingfreak's latest high-scoring wines show why Belinda and John Hughes are true riesling masters

Belinda and John Hughes are riesling freaks. They are lovingly obsessed with the variety – particularly with experimenting with different styles and better understanding the influence of site.

Fruit is sourced from a plethora of different vineyards across the Clare Valley and Eden Valley in South Australia, and transformed into dry, sweet, sparkling and fortified styles of riesling. They do it all. They do it remarkably well. And they make it surprisingly affordable. All this leads to these wines selling out lightning quick.

And seeing that Rieslingfreak's latest rieslings have received brilliant scores from Halliday tasters Dave Brookes and Mike Bennie, we highly recommend you snap up as many bottles as you can find. 

This latest release includes the 2025 vintages of Rieslingfreak No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 8, No. 10, No. 12 and No. 14 as well as the 2022 Rieslingfreak No.1. These were awarded scores from 93 to 98, with the vast majority sitting at or above 95. 

Most notably, the flagship No. 1 garnered 98 points, with Dave Brookes commenting “It's like a liquid version of that light you get just after a late afternoon rain storm, all crystalline and shimmering like it's balancing on a fulcrum and everything falls into sharp relief.” 

This is just the third release of Rieslingfreak No.1, which is only produced in vintages where John and Belinda find a patch of grapes that inspire a wine of this calibre.

In 2022, the No.1 was grown by Dan Falkenberg at Avon Brae vineyards just outside of Springton in the Eden Valley. Dan fosters a proudly biodynamic and holistic approach to winegrowing, with a focus on natural, site-derived inputs and increasing biodiversity in the vineyard. This approach ensured that the fruit selected for the 2022 No.1 carried a unique blend of natural yeast and microfauna into the winery to facilitate a vigorous and distinctly unique natural fermentation, imparting complexity in both flavour and texture to the finished wine.

Speaking of the No.1, Belinda notes how “It is an homage to the German GG style; a new world wine that is made in a distinctly old world way, paying respect to the individual vineyard the grower, and the grapes by capturing the very essence of the vineyard terroir from the best vines of the vintage.”

But this isn’t the only wine worthy of your attention. Each of the 2025 rieslings are also mighty impressive. And that’s off the back of a particularly tough season.

“The 2025 vintage was not without its challenges. 2024 was the driest year on record in South Australia, and the pressure on our growers to manage their limited water supplies was intense to say the least. Coupled with a severe frost event in September 2024, crops were much smaller than average across both the Clare and Eden Valleys,” Belinda Shared.

She went on to say, “While this limited production volumes, it also reduced the pressure on irrigation resources, producing smaller volumes of intensely flavoured berries. The 2025 Rieslings are bursting with intense fruit flavour, meaning that even the dry Rieslings with high levels of natural acidity achieve perfect balance without a hint of residual sugar.”

As mentioned previously, these wines are rightfully popular and can be hard to come by. The No.3 Clare Valley Riesling and No.4 Eden Valley Riesling are in many independent wine stores, but for the smaller parcels, the team recommends signing up to the Rieslingfreak mailing list or browsing their rieslings at rieslingfreak.com.

The only way to access the entire range (including some very special limited releases) is via Rieslingfreak's Tasting Room and/ or website.