Already we are into the Chinese New Year – and this year it is the year of the dragon! What a great opportunity to talk Sweet Riesling – our best-selling Riesling adorned with a Dragon carrying a cauldron of fire on the label.

THE STYLE – The wine came out of a vision, the vision of a great American Kabinett. Of course we could not reproduce that style exactly (Eastern Washington weather and soils are not the Mosel) and we had to tweak things a bit to make a good wine years after years (more on this learning experience later). THE NAME – We also wanted this wine to talk to consumers; most Riesling wines just said “Riesling” and that drove us crazy: “how can consumers find a sweet Riesling if they all say just ‘Riesling’ on the label” – hence we came up with the name “Sweet Riesling” on our labels. At the beginning everyone (Distributors, large clients) told us we were crazy: “consumers do not like the word ‘sweet’ even if they like to drink ‘sweet’ – do not put ‘sweet’ on the label”. The popularity of this wine and the number of copycats since then (It always amazes me to see so many wine companies just copy one another) have proven that the “Sweet Riesling” wording was a winning ticket. THE DRAGON – The imagery was crystallized very early in our mind, we wanted an iconographic art piece that would clearly depict that this type of wine (low alcohol – high sugar – high acid) is made to go with spicy food – Sweet Riesling with hot/spicy food is a culinary experience that one cannot miss. An Asian dragon was perfect for this image – agile, light and deadly. Adding a cauldron of fire helped explain the great tension between a Sweet Riesling and hot food.
BACK TO THE STYLE – We knew we wanted a certain balance where high sugar levels would be balanced by high acidity. The first year we made the Sweet (2006), we’ve picked the grapes at the same time than the Dry Riesling and the acidity did not allow carrying more than 6% residual sugar – we thought: “need more acid”. 2007 brought a warmer harvest and we decided to pick early to keep our acids higher, we found out this was a great timing to harvest for that style and that same year we understood clearly that sugar alone was not enough of a parameter to pick grapes (I know we are a bit slow) – we also decided that we could do away with adding acid by simply picking earlier – yes! One less additive at the winery. What a revelation 2007 was, we’ve picked early, did not add acid and made a naturally balanced wine that tasted great. We narrowed on a slightly higher residual sugar level closer to 7% because now the wine could carry more sugar (and we love the tension between acid and sugar – that is what makes a great Riesling). In 2008 we’ve learned two more tricks; the first one was the use of native yeast and how well they worked for our wines. The second one was the importance of residual carbon dioxide in the bottle – we started obsessing about carbon dioxide and made sure that the residual carbon dioxide would be perfect at bottling. In 2009 we started to think about having a fraction of the blend coming from a botrytized vineyard – until then all our fruit was always clean and beautiful – to get complexity we had to find some botrytis and we’d decided to explore growing botrytized vineyard blocks (note – it does not work that well). We also started to understand deeply the relationship between our pH and the sensation of sweetness for the wines. 2009 brought also the first Sweet Riesling 100% fermented with native yeasts. 2010 gave us a LOT of botrytis. I was like mother nature heard our desire to get some Botrytis and said “you wanted some, here you go my friend” – I think this is my favorite vintage of Sweet Riesling (though the 2011 currently in tank is not shabby by any means), that year we really learned to work with Botrytis – all that rot is not all good. 2011 was similar to 2010, no major breakthrough this vintage. Every vintage brought its share of learning but after 6 vintages of Sweet Riesling we really are starting to get it down to a science – no acid addition, no yeast, pick early, keep your pH low, high residual carbon dioxide, some botrytis.

So for the year of the Dragon, remember to pick up a Sweet Riesling – a treat with Spicy food and now a great story to repeat at dinner time.

I was listening to the excellent Grape Radio featuring an interview with Louis Fabrice Latour (warning Grape Radio could be a bit intense for non wine nerds – consume at your own risk) and part of the conversation revolved around white wine maturity. Monsieur Latour had some great comments about how many people now do not understand older mature white wines especially as it relates to color. It seems that as soon as the color turns a little yellow many consumers – and experts – turn to the conclusion that the wine is oxydized and near total death. I was relating to many conversations I have had in the past with good clients about aged Riesling and how people are so darn sensitive to color and jump to conclusion – not everyone makes green Sauvignon Blanc to be drunk within 12 month! It did not use to be like this, great white Burgundies (the one that Louis Fabrice referred to), the great Rieslings, the great Chenin Blanc from the Loire, an old Bordeaux Blanc, they all turn yellow-yellow after 5 -6 years and if the wine is balanced (sometimes residual sugar helps a lot as well as a low pH/high acid combo), most experienced wine drinkers will consider those wines to be still young and very pleasurable. May be they are not youngsters and have developed more bottle bouquet, but by no mean they are dead. I would agree that some cheap white wines, aged under a lot of oak and often under a cheap natural cork – or a fake plastic cork (all great techniques for hyper oxygenation) can be oxidized and dead, but please do not jump to the conclusion that all yellow pigmented white wines are dead – you might be missing out on a great bottle of wine and another world of wine.

From Sharon Kapnick: sharonswineline.wordpress.com

This is a summary of our long and painful 2011 harvest:

OREGON:

We brought some Riesling from Oregon but also some Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris for our new Oregon winery project. It was a challenging harvest in OR overall following an unseasonably cool spring and summer (Thank you la Nina). We thought that all would be saved by a great August and a promising September but the weather turned cold mid-September slowing down ripening considerably. We were aggressive with yield reduction to allow what was left to ripen a bit more. The saving grace has been the dry weather which has reduced fungal pressure in OR tremendously. We saw little or no rot on any varietal. Most folks started to harvest mid-October wrapping harvest in 2 to 3 weeks – bit of a flash harvest ahead of the rain that are in the forecast as far as the eye can see now. Overall the fruit is low in sugar (21 Brix) but fruit flavors are ripe with no greenness, and colors on the Pinot Noir are very decent indeed. I think that overall it will be a nice vintage with delicate flavors that will reward wineries that tend to go for elegance against power. The Riesling was low Brix and is slotted for a Kabinett style.

WASHINGTON:

Same pattern than OR in WA minus the rain factor and plus frost issues. The summer was very cool and 2011 will be remembered as one of the coldest vintage on record, cooler than 2010 even – 2011 is the 8th coldest year on record sandwiched between 1976 and 1970. The yields were quite lower than last year due to some winter frost damage and some aggressive thinning after bloom. WA harvest as a whole will probably be 20% below average yield which has probably helped to get most fruit to good ripeness. Acids are high and everyone brought some nice botrytis with the fruit. Overall it is a little riper of a vintage (bit weird but the acids were much lower than 2010) for us and we will be able to make every Riesling style we usually produce. We are leaving a few acres out to see if this is a good ice wine year, we might get something good out of this cold weather!