OK you Riesling data geeks. Here is a new one for you, the top 10 Riesling producers in the universe. This is a table I compile for our Riesling Rules book:

Noteworthy: Washington is now #6 from #7 (YEAH), Alsace has dropped one place. Baden is the only region in the top ten to lose acreage. Note the growth of Washington State +23% – top growth in the top ten!

The 2009 National Agricultural Statistics Service report for grapes is out and it is full of interesting information for the data junkies that some of us are (disclaimer: all those numbers are preliminary and will be revised one more time in July 2010). 2009 saw a 14% hike in the total amount of grapes harvested vs 2008 and we have picked 165,000 tons in 2009. California harvested 3.4 million tons in 2009 (for comparison) – or 11 million cases for WA vs 221 million for CA (note Washington is the second largest wine producer after California). Whites were 55 percent of the harvest (growing 20% vs 2008) and reds 45 percent (growing 7% vs 2008). Riesling (yeah) was the number one varietal as expected, though only beating Chardonnay by 300 tons and representing 21% of the total harvest. Riesling has grown by 23% in 2009 (yeah twice). Grape prices seem to be softening accross the board, down 4% overall probably reflecting a large increase in supplies combined with a softening super premium wine market. Top white varietals: Riesling YEAH (2.275 million cases worth), Chardonnay (2.255 million cases worth), Pinot Gris (.429 million cases worth), Sauvignon Blanc (0.279 million cases worth), Gewurztraminer YEAH (0.266 million cases worth). Top red varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon (1.852 million cases worth), Merlot (1.735 million cases worth), syrah (0.715 million cases worth), Cabernet Franc (.175 million cases). Go Washington!

For those of you guys that really enjoy digging into German laws and regulation here is an excellent blog entry from Dr Christian Schiller about sugar levels, labeling laws and chaptalisation in Germany. A must read: http://schiller-wine.blogspot.com/2010/01/german-wine-basics-sugar-in-grape.html

This is the time of the year when we are bottling our first Rieslings blends. This year, the first blends to go to bottle are our Riesling made from organic (4% Residual Sugar), our Sweet Riesling (about 8% Residual sugar) and our new Riesling (2% Residual Sugar – another post about this Riesling later this week). It is always very satisfying to come to this point after months of work in the vineyard and at the winery. The challenge, and somewhat the fun part of the job, for a Riesling winery like us is blending smartly the different vineyard lots we produce in order to optimize each style we make (we make nine different Rieslings). In order to have plenty of options for blending we make many different lots of wines that are based on the vineyard they came from. The selection for those lots starts during the growing season where we usually sort each vineyard based on their intrinsic potential that year:  sparkling base potential, dryer Riesling potential and sweeter Riesling potential. Based on that designated potential, the grapes are picked either earlier in the season (for the sweeter styles so they have more acid to balance the sugar) or later (for the drier styles).

When the grapes are picked, the juices are evaluated pre fermentation to make sure that the designated style we had of this particular vineyard still makes sense. At that point we also refine the target style beyond sweet and dry based on flavor profile, sugar content, acid levels, phenolic content and the Biodynamic or Organic status of the juices. For Dry styles we divide the juices for sparkling, Dry Riesling, Solstice Single Vineyard and Wallula Biodynamic Single Vineyard. For Sweet styles we divide the juices for Riesling (2% RS), Organic and Sweet Riesling. Each lot is then allocated a target final residual sugar and we stop the fermentations based on our juice evaluation in most cases. Finally comes blending times where we pretty much review every single fermentation lot and we always tweak the blends left and right based on our desired final flavor profile, acid level, phenolic level and sugar level. That makes usually for a busy November/December.

I was reading Steve Heimoff’s blog this morning and he had an interesting question about revieweing wines: should the wine be reviewed with the winemaker or should it be reviewed blind with no context. I have, as usual, an opinion. The more time I spend in our wine industry, the more I think that it is difficult to separate the winemaker (I use winemaker as a broad term, not the individual, but the set of circumstances that leads to make a particular bottle of wine) and the wine itself. Of course one can try to be very analytical and cold about wine reviews and that is a viable way to test a wine no question. But there is so much more in a bottle of wine than just the taste – how was it made (what techniques were used), where are the grapes from, what was the intent behind this wine. The value of knowing the tid bits are as important to me as the wine itself. I relate wine to Classical music; some folks just like to listen to a piece and give it a thumb up or down while others want to know how was this written, why was the composer pushed to write this – sometimes a not so good sounding piece of music becomes interesting once one knows the reason for its being. The details are not for everyone, many people just want to know the score and that’s it and we should respect that. For the few for whom the context matters, wine should be reviewed with some emotional background and I would love for us to keep some of that.

Anyone that pretends to know me is aware of my love of food and restaurant. I love to go out to new food scenes and try new treats. I must say that restaurants that put some thoughts into their menus and are showing a preference in local food score more points for me. My parents used to own a restaurant and I understand that fresh, locally produced food, mean the difference between a great plate or an average one.

I am blessed to live in a city where local food is just as common as stop signs. I have been a bit frustrated lately to find that so many places that claim their dedication to local food have no local wine on their wine list – that’s right zippo localo vino, no American wines, only Europeans. Some say that it is because European wines go well with the food and that domestic wines are too heavy. Well, to that I say booooguuuus – they are plenty of great balanced wines made domestically. More likely it is because foreign wines are easier to mark up because patrons can’t recognize the names or because the wines are not available else where (make the mark up invisible). This mark up shell game is silly – think about the cost of a coke, or a coffee, or anything on the menu for that matter, do you think the customers does not know there is a markup?

Why are restaurant owners keep ignoring the fact that in grocery twice as much domestic wine is sold versus imports (and the trend is accelerating)? And why not having local wines or your menus? When I go to Michigan – I want to try a Michigan wine, when I go to New York – I want to try a New York wine. The last two times I went out I had only European wines on the menu and I ended up drinking water in one instance and beer in another. Not that I don’t like foreign wines at all (I buy and drink my fair share) but in a local restaurant I want to have the possibility of drinking a domestic wine. I am not suggesting boycotting foreign wines but at least give them a shot on your wine list and see what happens. Gee, you might sell much of it.

Love the last paragraph of Jancis Robinson’s wishes for the year published in the financial times today:

“Meanwhile, my personal wish for 2010 is to drink more and more Riesling. It is relatively low in alcohol, high in flavour, develops beautifully in bottle, expresses terroir and goes very happily with so many of the foods we eat now. It doesn’t have to be sweet either.”

I say amen to that statement, less alcohol, more pleasure, light wine like the food we eat those days… We must be twins Jancis and I…

I have read so many top 10, top 100, top whatever that I thought, may be I should have a top something as well. I was not sure how many “tops” one should have though - 10 – 20 – 5 up/ 5 down – so I have settled on a list of cool achievements that have allowed our company to climb to the top (sorry could not resist another “top” word, might be over the t…).

Before we run through this top secret list of top of mind super top happenings, let me thank every customer that has purchased a bottle of our wines in 2009 – as they say in the airline industry, “we know you have many choices out there and we thank you for flying with us today!”. Without consumer support, our small Riesling winery could not grow and prosper. Thank you also to our distributors for carrying our wines throughout the country, our importers for representing us in our export markets, our grape growers for providing us with top quality year after year and of course our top employees (13 total!) for shaping the wine company we are today.

Alright, now to the TOP:

- Top performance: in 2009 Pacific Rim has grown 38%! Wow, not bad for 13 folks making Riesling. This is outpacing the wine category and the strong Riesling Category – Great job!

- Top three new wines this year with smashing success – Riesling Made from Organic Grapes (92 Points from Paul Gregutt!), Sparkling Riesling (SOLD OUT!), Autumnus Red (great Italian style wine from WA).

- Top Dry Riesling named best wine of the year by the Sommelier’s Challenge!

- A Tip-Top 2009 harvest with two new Rieslings in the portfolio

- Four babies born in 2009 – Top baby/employee ratio