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This is the third year we’ve made our Dry Riesling from this outstanding organic vineyard high up in the hills of Mendocino County. This year’s Riesling is in the style of our first vintage, in that the wine is fermented completely dry, with a beautiful mineral and stone character that balances the refined Riesling fruit. This wine is made in the style of the dry white wines from the Alsace region of France, an area that produces some of our favorite European white wines.
2008 Dry Riesling, McFadden Farms
HISTORY
We’ve searched long and hard for a good vineyard from which to make a Dry Riesling, and our search ended when we found the vineyard tended by grape-grower Guinness McFadden. In this Potter Valley location, the nights are quite cool and the days relatively warm, allowing the grapes to ripen slowly while developing lovely, complex flavors. We were excited that Guinness had many years of experience growing both grapes and herbs organically on his farm, which fit in perfectly with our desire at Dashe Cellars to have minimal handling of our grapes and wines.
PRODUCTION
Although 2008 was a hot vintage, our Riesling grapes ripen so late that they were unaffected when the worst of the heat hit the vineyard. As was typical with this vineyard, the grapes were picked in mid-October—one of the last vineyards we harvested. We gently pressed the fruit in our Italian grape press for almost three hours in order to intensify the fruit flavors without extracting any harsh seed tannin.
After pressing, the juice was allowed to settle prior to being racked into a small variable-capacity stainless steel tank. During fermentation, we kept the must cool to preserve the lovely Riesling fruit aromatics. We fermented the wine completely dry, and kept the wine on its yeast until just before bottling . After fermentation, it was kept in its stainless steel tank, filtered to remove the yeast and particulate matter, and bottled in late February.
Tasting Notes
Color: Pale yellow, reflecting the riper year.
Aroma: This wine possesses a lovely nose of minerals and earth, mixed with apricot and orange citrus. Slight peppery spice.
Flavors: Dried apricot, orange, minerals, earth, with a touch of spice, this wine has a velvety texture, great balance, and a clean, dry, spicy finish. An ideal wine to accompany spicy foods.
Number of cases produced: 389 cases (750 ml)
Date released: April 1st, 2009
Price: $20 suggested retail
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