Winemaker Notes
This wine is a blend of many different fermentations, each one acting as a building block to create a powerful expression of dry riesling with aromas and flavors of tangerine, apple, pineapple, ginger and white lily.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Explosive sliced-pear, white-peach and white-flower aromas. Lip-smacking acidity and very juicy, white tree-fruit character on the sleek and focused palate. Long, super-clean finish with plenty of wet-stone character that’s really uplifting.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Dry Riesling comes in with 8.1 grams per liter of residual sugar, 8.63 of total acidity and 12% alcohol. There is a tiny dollop (2%) that was in neutral French oak for six months. Superb this year, this is focused and penetrating, tight and pure. With a big, tense and precise finish, it adds an almost unctuous texture for a Dry Riesling. This is quite a bargain, and it should age well throughout the decade, probably more.
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Wine Enthusiast
Intense aromas of lime peels, fresh thyme and kerosene carry to the medium-bodied palate. A slightly candied citrus peel flavor chimes in, but a pithy texture and a savory note of crushed salt lend ample balance. It ends dry, savory and lifted, delivering a zesty Riesling that will play well at the dinner table.
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Increasingly garnering widespread and well-deserved attention, New York ranks third in wine production in the United States (after California and Washington). Divided into six AVAs—the Finger Lakes, Lake Erie, Hudson River, Long Island, Champlain Valley of New York and the Niagara Escarpment, which crosses over into Michigan as well as Ontario, Canada—the state experiences varied climates, but in general summers are warm and humid while winters are very cold and can carry the risk of frost well into the growing season.
The Finger Lakes region has long been responsible for some of the country’s finest Riesling, and is gaining traction with elegant, light-bodied Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. Experimentation with cold-hardy European varieties is common, and recent years have seen the successful planting of grapes like Grüner Veltliner and Saperavi (from the Eastern European country of Georgia). Long Island, on the other hand, has a more maritime climate influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, and shares some viticultural characteristics with Bordeaux. Accordingly, the best wines here are made from Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The Niagara Escarpment is responsible for excellent ice wines, usually made from the hybrid variety, Vidal.