10 Years in the Making: The Story of ‘The Pamela’ Riesling

Refined, elegant and beautiful. Three words Singlefile’s Managing Director Patrick Corbett used to describe ‘The Pamela’ Pororongrup Riesling. Unsurprisingly, those same words sprang to the forefront when asked to describe the wines namesake — Pamela Corbett, Patrick’s wife and co-founder of Singlefile.

‘The Pamela’ Riesling follows in the family footsteps of Singlefile’s other Limited Releases ‘The Philip Adrian’ and ‘The Vivienne’, named in honour of Singlefile founders Phil and Viv Snowden, Pamela’s parents.

“I always had in the back of my mind that I would love to also call a wine after Pamela,” said Patrick. “However, to put Pam’s name on a wine we wanted to ensure firstly that she liked it, and secondly that it was to a standard that we were proud of.”

The first Pamela vintage was many years in the making, with Patrick researching for almost 10 years to find the ideal vineyard site.

“For those who enjoy riesling, they are probably aware that the best sites in Australia for riesling are Clare Valley, Eden Valley and the Porongurup sub-region of the Great Southern. We were fortunate enough in 2022 to work with a vineyard in the Porongurup region that was well established. The only downside of this vineyard is that it is very small. So this wine is always going to be a limited production, we’re never going to be able to produce large quantities of it.”

According to Patrick, ‘The Pamela’ is a wine for true riesling lovers who relish the opportunity to enjoy the wine’s youthful vibrancy, and also see the potential to witness the development of the wine over time.

“We’ve made the riesling in a style that she [Pamela] really likes, that we think showcases the vineyard and the Porongurup sub-region beautifully. There’s lots of natural acidity when youthful — if you can imagine biting into a granny smith apple where there’s lots of crunchy acidity, but they age beautifully. You’ll see lots of citrus characters in their youth, even a bit of a chalky salinity. That evolves into minerality as the wine ages and it’s probably got an ageing potential of 20 plus years.”

The winemaking of the 2023 vintage was focussed on simply preserving the delicate flavours and aromas from the fruit and allowing the vineyard’s sense of place to shine through.  

“It’s a wine where there is little to nothing you can do in the winery other than appreciate what the vineyard has delivered, there's no winemaking inputs or techniques applied here,” Patrick explains.

While riesling is an incredibly diverse food wine that pairs well with a range of styles, Patrick says you can’t go wrong with some fresh oysters.

“'The Pamela’ Riesling with some beautiful Albany oysters is as close to perfection as you can get.”

Access to ‘The Pamela’ is limited to fine dining restaurants, speciality wine stores and the Singlefile Wine Club. Not a member? Head here to join.