We were hosting a biodynamic tasting at our offices in Portland. Pacific Rim was pouring a vertical of Wallula Vineyard Biodynamic Rieslings (picture above). This was an opportunity for me to taste through the first three vintages (2007-2008-2009) of the magnificent Wallula Vineyard and reflect on our winemaking and our progress. Remember that those wines are biodynamic wines (vs made from biodynamic grapes) which is pretty rare as I saw yesterday where most of the producers present were pouring made from biodynamic grapes wines. Nothing is added to those wines (no yeast, no acid, no nothing) and they are certified biodynamic. Wallula is probably one of the most thoughtful Riesling planting in the USA with a special trellis system, German clones and all biodynamically farmed (http://rieslingrules.com/the_book/about-our-wines/biodynamic-winemaking-at-pacific-rim/).

2007 Wallula Riesling BioD: It was our first year and were still learning about selecting the best rows and We might have picked a bit late. The resulting wine is very nice though may be missing some acid and it is rich in alcohol. It is rebalanced by a very low residual sugar (0.7%?). Overall a great wine but not the best we have made I would think. Would love to taste this in 5 years to see how it is aging.

2008 Wallula Riesling BioD: This was a cool vintage and also the first vintage we started to pick the grapes at different time (fractionnal picking). The wine was difficult to ferment and stuck at 1.2% residual sugar. It is a more complex version with some serious aging potential.

2009 Wallula Riesling BioD: Whao, may be our best vintage. It is zippy (we picked quite early) with a lower ethanol content (12.5%). We started to stop the fermentation early for a fraction of the blend so we could use that fraction to blend back into a dry fraction aged on lees. This technique  seems to be very appropriate for our conditions. This is a complex and hedgy wine. Very interesting and thoughtful.

Overall this was a solid line up and I could taste the vineyard through each wine. The common thread reflecting the site was the lovely floral nose of each wine. The  importance of the picking date and the amount of fractionnal picking (picking the same vineyard at different rippeness levels) really had a tremendous impact. I can’t wait to do a 10 year vertical with the press to taste what I think is one of the most thoughtful Riesling in North America.

2006 Sweet Riesling – rated 88 points Wine Spectator (Harvey Steiman): Great pale color still for this older wine, nice nose, fresh as can be. Great acidity on this wine, aging very gracefully, still very young. This has still California fruit in it by the way so it has no appellation on the front. This is still a very serious Riesling – impressive and complex. pH: 2.96, TA: 0.81, RS: 7%

2007 Sweet Riesling – rated 89 points Wine Enthusiast (Paul Gregutt): Our first wine in our new winery in Eastern Washington. Color is quite gold, some more age character, nose is still fresh, very Riesling like, nice honey, feels a bit more phenolic. Not as nice as 2006, more Washington in style – less Germanic. Probably my least favorite right now. This is the first year we also lowered our total sulfite content – may be some correlation between the way it ages and the amount of preservative? pH: 2.97, TA: 0.81, RS: 6.8%

2008 Sweet Riesling – rated 89 points Wine Enthusiast (Paul Gregutt): Interesting nose, on the floral side, color is going the way of the 2007 but not quite golden yet, lively mouthfeel that makes the wine quite refreshing. In the same vein than 2007 though may be a tid bit more lively. Finishes quite dry with notes of botrytis. pH: 3.03, TA: 0.80, RS: 6.5%

2009 Sweet Riesling – rated 89 points Wine Spectator (Harvey Steiman): Great color, loaded with apricot, a very fine and fruity nose, fresh, nice acid, this is a dynamite wine, great acid, whao – Did we make that? pH: 2.99, TA: 0.72, RS: 7%

Overall I am very impressed with how those wines are holding. The 2007 is probably on its way down but the 2006 is still very lively (would be interesting to see how it will evolve in the next 12-24 months). I must say that 2009 is a very nice vintage and drinking just amazingly well right now. Fun exercise to line them up all like this – I’ll do that again soon with the Dry Riesling.

We are releasing a new Riesling – we have now up to 10 different Rieslings in our lineup . This new release is a 2009 Riesling that we made in what I would call the “traditional” Johannisberg style (I know, I know, we are not supposed to use this term anymore). So, what is a “J” style? Well, J’s were usually bout 2% residual sugar Riesling and picked around 22.5 Brix (Auslese ripeness level) with about 12.5% of ethanol. It was and still is today the most proeminent style in Washington State. Our version of this American favorute is slightly different (of course) in the way that it is about 2.3% residual sugar and 11.5% ethanol therefore picked at 21.5 Brix (a ripe spatlese ripeness level). Like all of our Rieslings we like to pick grapes earlier than most folks in order to contribute a lot of natural acidity to balance the sugar and also to keep a lower alcohol content. The grapes come from the Yakima Valley, a cooler climate more appropriate for this style I believe. The wine is very fruity (think mango, guava, apricot with a hint of floral notes) and refreshing, a nice addition to the portfolio that does not replicate any other Riesling we make. When I was looking at the Riesling line up a few weeks ago it dawned on me that we have a geometric RS series in our portfolio: 0-2-4-8-16! 0% RS is our Dry Riesling, 2% RS is our new Riesling, 4% RS is our Riesling made from organic grapes, 8% is our sweet Riesling and 16% is our Riesling Vin De Glaciere Selenium Vineyard. Pretty fun, no? Riesling is really enjoying a true rennaissance in this country (likethe Phoenix on this label) and we are proud to be part of it.

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).

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!

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.

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.

The ice cold temperature is not bad for everyone, at least not for Pacific Rim. As you might remember, we had left some grapes in the field this year in the hope of making a TBA of sort i.e. a botrytized wine better known as noble rot wine. It got too cold to produce a 100% Botrytis wine (though we got a good amount of botrytis) and in exchange we are getting several nights below 10F which is allowing us to make a true ice wine this year! We just got done picking today and received 6 tons of frozen grapes with lots of botrytis (yum yum). We are pressing tomorrow morning and we hope to get 500 gallons of the precious high Brix, complex juice. This should be a very very interesting wine (and yes another style of Riesling). A picture of the vineyard yesterday is above – amazing that such a odd looking bunch produces such an amazing wine.