Rieslingfreak No.9 is one of the more unusual wines in the range from John Hughes - it's a sparkling wine, modelled after the Sekt sparklings of Germany. Here, it's made in the traditional method with long lees ageing, which gives it plenty of yeast and bread dough notes, mixed with lemon and white grapefruit. It's bone dry and a serious addition to the upper echelon of Australian sparkling wines.

Owner and winemaker John Hughes was born and raised in the thick of the grape vines in the Clare Valley. His father instilled in him the love for this noble grape from an early age... so it was kind of inevitable that he would grow up to craft the stuff, and incredible expressions of it to boot. Rare in his approach, John only makes wines from Riesling, believing it the ultimate lens through which to view the terroir of the Clare Valley. And yet his selection of wines shows as much diversity as any winemaker - dry, sweet, sparkling, oaked or not....the breadth of Riesling is quite incredible. His love of the Clare region, and obviously the grape, is infectious, and his wines are a hymn to the greatness of both.