Pacific Rim Vin de Glaciere Riesling (375ml half-bottle) 2006
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2007-
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Wine & -
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Robert
Pacific Rim is the home of Riesling zealots. In fact, 95% of the total production is Riesling wines. Riesling is consistently one of the fastest growing white varietals in the wine industry. Riesling simply is the most versatile, complex and food-friendly of all the noble grapes. No other varietal can be crafted to express so many different and wondrous characteristics — from bone dry with floral aromas to dessert, sweet with spicy aromas.
More than any other varietal, Riesling purely expresses its terroir and Washington’s Columbia Valley — home of Pacific Rim — provides the ideal soils and climate for growing world class Riesling. Purity is at the core of Pacific Rim’s winemaking philosophy. They exclusively use stainless steel tanks, expressing the truest character of the vineyards. The wines are fresh, vivid and elegant with delicate yet complex aromas. Riesling’s crisp, vibrant characteristics are a fresh alternative to heavier, oak-laden white wines.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
An important winegrowing state increasingly recognized for its high-quality reds and whites, Washington ranks second in production in the U.S. after California. Washington wines continue to gain well-deserved popularity as they garner higher and higher praise from critics and consumers alike.
Washington winemakers draw inspiration mainly from Napa Valley, Bordeaux and the Rhône as well as increasingly from other regions like Spain and Italy. Most viticulture takes place on the eastern side of the state—an arid desert in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains. Irrigation is made possible by the Columbia River. Temperatures are extreme, with hot and dry summers and cold winters, during which frost can be a risk.
Washington’s wine industry was initially built on Merlot, which remains an important variety to this day, despite having been overtaken in acreage planted by Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Bordeaux blends and Rhône blends are common as well as single varietal bottlings. Washington reds tend to express a real purity of concentrated fruit. The best examples have a bold richness, seamless texture, plush or powdery tannins and flavors such as licorice, herb, forest floor, espresso and dark chocolate.
In terms of white wine from Washington state, Riesling is the state’s major success story, producing crisp, aromatic examples with plenty of stone fruit that range from bone dry to lusciously sweet. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc perform nicely here as well, and Viognier is beginning to pick up steam.