Winemaker Notes
#2 wine in VinePair's Top 50 of 2018
Planted in 1976, our HJW Vineyard features Hermann’s original plantings on Seneca Lake. Mature vines, combined with the site’s shallow topsoil and shale bedrock, produce lower yields, resulting in expressively vibrant flavors. Higher elevation and a greater distance from Seneca Lake contribute to a cooler growing season, resulting in a leaner, more austere wine with intense flavor and an excellent aging potential. These core characteristics of the HJW vineyard are expressed in this exclusive vineyard-specific wine. Invigorating crispness and an appealing balance of flavors combine with an unprecedented minerality, which carries into an impressive and enduring finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
For the very ripe vintage this has wonderful delicacy and elegance. Lots of floral notes, white and yellow peaches make this seriously seductive. Long and very elegant finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Riesling HJW Vineyard comes in with just seven grams of residual sugar and 12.5% alcohol. This was sourced from HJW vines planted in 1977. This is what the winery calls Hermann Wiemer's "home site," his own, original plantings. Although there are other blocks in HJW now, this upper-level bottling uses only the 1977 vines. Perky, bright, very elegant and transparent, this is another gorgeously balanced Wiemer Riesling this issue. It seems airier and slightly drier than most, yet it is somehow still more personable than most of its siblings. It just dances across the palate. It features both finesse and power, but the lively acidity accounts for its bright personality, despite being perfectly integrated. Even with the modest sugar level, it still seems fruity on first taste, but air and warmth change the balance a little. The next day, it seemed very tightly wound and brilliantly constructed. It displayed its tension and purity as the acidity came to the foreground. This has the longest finish, I'd say, of the dry Rieslings this issue. It's a pretty tasty one, too, with that controlled tension and expressive Riesling flavors. There is a hint of flint after it is open a couple of days. At this point, this was my favorite of the group, but over three or more days, others held better. That's a stern test, to be sure, but it is one that I expect great Rieslings to pass. Overall, while I thought that the Magdalena held better over three days, this should still age very well. As I said with the Magdalena, buy some for now and some for a decade from now.
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Wine Spectator
Bright and pure, with a racy beam of yellow apple, white peach, chamomile and lemon pith notes. Flashes of talc and dried chamomile add further tension through the finish, with the fruit keeping pace along the way. Drink now through 2024.
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Wine Enthusiast
Intensely concentrated in milky white blossoms and ripe stone fruit, this well-balanced Riesling hits all the marks. There's breadth to the ripe fruit flavors, with plenty of acidity for balance. A delicate, soft grip of astringency holds everything firmly in place, leading into a powdered mineral finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Drawn from Wiemer’s original 1976 planting, this has an old-vine elegance and composure. What starts out as sweet and simple—pear juice, with a peach accent—takes on plenty of complexity with air, with a salty minerality that gives it length. Cellar.
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.
As the most historic wine-producing region in New York state, winemaking in the Finger Lakes area dates back to the 1820s and today as a region, accounts for 90% of the state’s total wine production.
Its narrow and deep lakes created by the movement of Ice Age glaciers create an environment similar to the classic Riesling-loving regions of Europe, namely Germany and Austria. The Finger Lakes retain summer heat that incidentally warms up cold winter air, making it fall down from the lakes’ steep slopes. When spring comes, the lakes, already cooled by cold winter weather, stave off vine budding until the danger of frost has subsided. The main lakes of the zone, that is those big enough to moderate the climate in this way, are the focal points of prime vineyard areas. They include Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga.
While Riesling has fueled most of the region’s success, today Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc enjoy some attention.