It’s My “Riesling d’Etre”!
Ok, first of all, I do understand that “Riesling d’Etre” is a horrible pun, positively criminal in multiple languages. But still, most of you know that if I could only grow and drink one variety of wine, it would be Riesling. “Why?” you ask? Well, Riesling is about the only variety (maybe Chenin too) that can be made in a dry, off-dry, semi-sweet and sweet style and be world-class in each. (And it makes an amazing sparkling wine called Sekt too!)
But why is Riesling on the brain right now? Well, it is summer, and it’s the perfect summer wine. But truly, we’re putting the last white wines into bottle as we prepare for an upcoming early harvest, and Riesling is all over the winery. Two weeks ago, we bottled the 2025 Hillside Riesling with its peach and honeysuckle characters. It perfectly embraced the off-dry style of Riesling at 1.7% residual sugar. It’s lively, fresh and will sparkle with spicy foods, salted meats, and fresh fruit (and almost everything else!). And Riesling of course ages spectacularly, often much longer than red wines. The 2025 vintage can use a few months in bottle before releasing as Riesling develops (or rediscovers) its inherent complexity with a hint of age. (So come on up and get the 2024 vintage right now...It's awesome, and I'm not just saying that because I made it!)
But that's not the only Riesling in the winery right now. I've got 1,060 gallons of the 2025 Signature Dry Riesling in Tank #2, slowly cold stabilizing. With Riesling's great acidity, the little wine diamonds (crystals on the corks) can form in the bottle if we don't cold stabilize the wine first by chilling it down to 36 to 38 degrees (which mirrors your refrigerator temperatures). It's a waiting game now for the next week or so as the crystals form (salt out) in the tank. Then we'll rack, filter and bottle. And as for all those crystals (whether in the tank or forming over the years on the cork), it's just cream of tartar. So scrape it off the cork and make cookies. As for the '25 Dry Riesling, it's glorious! It also will improve with a hint of age. But if you need Dry Riesling right now, you'd better come quickly as we're down to the last 7 cases of the 2024 Signature Dry Riesling!
Lastly, Maggie has her 'M-Series' Riesling in Tank #17, all 120 gallons of it. This low-alcohol expression of Riesling just totally embraces the liveliness of Riesling with an invigorating freshness and brightness of fruit. The 120 gallons will make just about 50 cases, although we'll see when Maggie wants to release it. (We've been sold out of the 'M-Series' for a long time, so....)
That's three 3 exquisite Rieslings all produced off our own-rooted Riesling planted here in 1973! It's time for you all to introduce this variety into your daily wine rotation. I believe 9 out of 10 wine physicians and 13 out of 11 wine psychiatrists state this will make you a better person! And now you see why this makes for my "Riesling for Being!"