Winemaker Notes
This California Riesling is an ideal confluence of luscious fruit, persistent acidity, and river stone minerality. It opens with aromatics of honeysuckle, apricots, and even the distinctive Riesling marker of petrol. The palate is loaded with both white peaches and white pepper, hitting every note required for a great crisp, clean, and crushable white wine.
This organic Riesling is perfect for drinking on its own or with a good spicy meal.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Old Vine Riesling comes from very old dry-farmed, head-pruned vines in San Benito County. It is exotic and perfumed with white peach, lilac, manuka honey and petrol scents. The palate is lushly fruited and mouth coating, which gives it a sense of sweetness, although it is technically dry. It has a spine of racy acidity and finishes long and full of flavor.
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James Suckling
A fruity white with kerosene and sliced-pear character. Medium-bodied with nice acidity and a fruity finish. Soft and fresh. Drink now.
Starting with only a handful of purchased grapes in 1978, Marietta Cellars has been a standout winery in Sonoma and Mendocino since the very beginning. Founded by Chris Bilbro, a Sonoma County native with winemaking roots dating back three generations, Marietta rose to prominence with its revolutionary Old Vine Red, a California red blend that essentially created the category. The winery has slowly expanded its estate holdings over the past thirty years, evolving into a beacon for high quality, balanced Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Rhône variety blends. Now fully estate-based and organically farmed, Marietta has vineyards spanning 310 acres in the Alexander Valley, McDowell Valley, and Yorkville Highlands. Notable among their heritage plantings are California’s oldest Syrah blocks, planted in the late 1800s.
Scot Bilbro, Chris’s son, has brought Marietta into its next, incredibly exciting phase. After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in Viticulture and Enology in 2007, Scot joined the winery full-time, assuming the role of winemaker in 2012. Steeped in the history of the California wine country and the traditions established by his father, Scot combines his creativity and technical background in guiding the winery’s vision of viticulture and winemaking. Today, the fusion of traditional values and style with modern precision have culminated in the most highly regarded wines of Marietta’s four decade history.
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.
Taking advantage of the cool Pacific breezes that arrive via gaps between the Gabilan Range and the Santa Lucia Mountains, San Benito AVA is a great Central coast source for cool climate whites and Pinot noir.