Below is a press release that we have put on the wire yesterday to shout to the world how proud we are to be number one!

RICHLAND, Wash.– (BUSINESS WIRE) — Many “experts” believe these are times to avoid risk and survive the economic storm. At Pacific Rim Winery, the founders have taken a radically different tack by making risk-taking a pillar of their company culture. In just three years, their strategy has paid dividends – and, in the process, they’ve left an indelible mark on the wine industry.

Three years ago this month, a small band of Bonny Doon Vineyard expatriates founded Pacific Rim Winery. Their challenge: Create an entire brand around the success of one wine (Dry Riesling). Bonny Doon Vineyard has a rich history of innovative and creative thinking, and the winery’s founder, Randall Grahm, is widely recognized as the force behind the democratization of the wine industry over the past two decades.

With this pedigree, it’s not surprising that the team who founded Pacific Rim would challenge industry conventions and redefine a few “tried and true” wine industry rules along the way. Because of their innovative thinking, aggressive growth, creative marketing and – of course – award-winning wines, Wine Business Monthly (the industry’s preeminent trade magazine) has named Pacific Rim the #1 HOT SMALL WINE BRAND OF 2009.

Pacific Rim received the HOT BRAND honor largely because of a passion and commitment to do things differently and a willingness to take risks. The biggest risk taken by the Pacific Rim team was to commit to a single wine variety, RIESLING. In an industry where wineries spread risk by investing in multiple wine varieties, the team at Pacific Rim wanted to make a statement. That statement was: Do one thing and do it better than anyone else. In fact, Pacific Rim crafts ten Rieslings across flavor profiles – comprising 90% of the winery’s production. Affirming the wisdom of their singular Riesling focus, Riesling was recently named the fastest growing wine variety by AC Nielsen (even surpassing Pinot Noir).

Their risks have paved the way to 40% growth year-on-year and total sales approaching 150,000 cases. This is growth that would make any business proud in today’s challenging economic times. And all of this has occurred during a time where wine brands are shrinking or dying and growth for the overall wine industry has been flat.

But the brand’s singular commitment to Riesling is only part of the story. Pacific Rim demands innovation across all their efforts: from vineyard management to package design to communications programs.

·         Last year, Pacific Rim released a Riesling Made with Organic Grapes. The grapes are sourced from their Wallula Biodynamic Vineyard – the first and ONLY Demeter certified Biodynamic vineyard in Washington State. The wine was awarded the #3 TOP 100 BEST WINE BUY of 2009 from Wine Enthusiast. Subsequently, demand for the wine has exploded.

·         The brand’s packaging is unlike anything in industry. Transparent labels with progressive artwork promotes the beauty and clarity of Riesling while telling a visual food pairing story (e.g. a dragon portrayed on their popular Sweet Riesling label blows fire onto an iron caldron – communicating the wine’s perfect balance with spicy fare).

·         Pacific Rim published the Riesling Rules Book (a fun and information-packed exploration of all things Riesling). The book’s objective voice and subtle branding has earned it broad recognition (even a review in USA Today). The book is available FREE on Pacific Rim’s website www.RieslingRules.com and 35,000 copies of the book have been distributed to date. Content includes: wine styles, food pairings, global growing regions – even the Top Ten Movies to Enjoy with Riesling.

·         Other recent programs have included: SAVE WATER/DRINK RIESLING (a sustainable program in partnership with the Wild Salmon Center) and RIESLINGS GREETINGS (a Holiday retail chain POS stack-and-go concept).

Being true to their innovative spirit, Pacific Rim promises a few more innovations this upcoming year: launching a content-rich social media strategy, Riesling Rules online animations and Rieslings Greetings 2.0.

About Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim celebrates Riesling in all its wondrous forms. The winery is owned by Randall Grahm and located in West Richland, Washington. All vineyards are located within the Columbia Valley. For more information, see www.rieslingrules.com.

What do we do to have a certified “Made from Organic Grapes” Riesling: to be organic the wine as to 1) be made from certified organic grapes 2) be made in a winemaking facility certified to organic standard 3) follow a process filed with USDA that is organic. Pacific Rim is certified by the Washington State Department of Ag which, in turns, is certified by USDA. The process is fairly restrictive, expensive (we pay a percentage of sales to WSDA) and requires yearly inspections from WSDA and yearly filing.

Why is our wine labeled ”Made From Organic Grapes” rather than “Organic”: Everything we use in our winemaking is certified organic. We actually go beyond the regulation because 1) we do not use commercial yeasts 2) we do not add any acid to our wines. The only non organic element we use is sulfur dioxide know as sulfites (not to be mistaken with sulfides which is a term gathering a bunch of stinky rotten egg compounds sometimes found in wines). Sulfur dioxide is a very common preservative in dry fruits, pre packed vegetables and juices. It is authorized in wines up to 350 mg/L but in Organic and biodynamic winemaking it is limited to 100 mg/L which is why at Pacific Rim all our wines are bottled with less than 100 mg/L of sulphur dioxide – guaranteed. We bottle the Riesling MFOG at around 90 mg/L (or ppm). Therefore the non organic fraction of the Riesling MFOG is really 0.009%. So it is quite a pure organic wine but since it has 0.009% of non organic product we have to call it MFOG.

Why use sulfites in wines by the way?: Sulfites act as 1) an antioxidant which is very important in white wines (we don’t need much for that purpose because we use air tight screwcaps and we make sure that our wines have no dissolved oxygen when they go in the bottle) and 2) an anti bacterial and anti fungal agent which is important for us because we have residual sugars and residual malic acid (we do not do malolactic fermentations). A last bonus of sulfites is that it is a bit like salt with food (Just like sulfites, salt is not healthy if you eat too much of it!) as it highlights and focuses the aromas and flavors of a wine. Finally note that sulfites are naturally produced by yeast in the 30ppm range usually - so even an Organic wine probably contains a small amount of sulfites. 

Our style: The grapes are picked around 22 Brix which would qualify for a very ripe Spatlese in most German regions. We make it in a definite sweet style but beware the acid on that one! About 0.78 TA, 3.04 pH and 3.5%RS. I think this is a very balanced wine with always very refined aromas of fresh white flowers and some peach. This is really a chameleon wine as far as pairing goes and at 10.5% Ethanol it is easy to drink!

There is no doubt about it: Riesling is one of the world’s great wines. I think my students were slightly stunned by the eight Riesling wines (ranging from very dry to an ice wine) that they sampled at a recent tasting I organized for them.

The Wine Economist

Yes, it has been three years already since we have embarked on our ambitious project of becoming the best Riesling producer in the world. I was reminded of the time gone by last week during a vertical tasting of two of our dryish style single vineyard Rieslings: The Wallula Vineyard Riesling and the Solstice Riesling.

Wallula is our Biodynamic vineyard located in the Horse Heaven Hills appelation. It is planted at about 1,300 feet of elevation, above flood levels. Wallula is a high density, pergola like, planting that is usually quite ripe and very Washington like. Our Single Vineyard from Wallula is certified biodynamic. The 2007 showed nice peach, very clean wine, yeasty, straight, showing a lot of youth. The 2008 was more on the pear side, but very similar to the 2007, clean, may be a bit sweeter right now on the palate with a big structure. The 2009 was very floral and dry, a winemaker’s wine definitely. Those wines showed great balance and even if they are different I could tell they all came from the same vineyard.

Solstice is an old Riesling planting (40 years old vines) in the Yakima Valley. It produces a very minerally styles. The 2007 was clean with some petrol notes, very sharp and concentrated, great serious wine. The 2008 vintage was crisp, hard and sharp, a very young wine with tons of aging potential. The 2009 had some slight green apple, very pure Riesling style, very similar to the 2008. I love solstice because it is a very honest see through wine.

Congrats to Whole Foods Austin for their beautiful White Flower sparkling Riesling display. Looks so beautiful it made us very happy in the office! thank you guys.

Icon: Pacific Rim 2008 Organic Riesling; $14. Also from organic grapes, this is also off-dry, the sweetness perfectly proportionate to the acid, with refined flavors of honey, jasmine and tea. The classy label shows a raised etching of a grapevine with the soil cut away, revealing a trailing root system.

PaulGregutt.com

Just coming back from a quick trip to raspberry land also known to us as Mount Vernon in the skagit valley of western Washington. It is there that Mike and Jean Jungquist grow our special selection of Raspberry that we call internally the “Morrison”. We’ve selected that raspberry varietal because of its low seed bitterness and its crazy high raspberry flavors. Mike and his family gow one field for us (picture below) so it is really a single vineyard raspberry! It is a major commitment from our team but this is what it take to make a primo raspberry infusion like framboise. The field yields about 40 tons of raspberry every year. We’ve discussed experimenting with a few newer selections this year, so I might be up for a raspberry clone tasting this summer (they breed about 180 new clones every year) - raspberry fans send me a note and I’ll take you up!