Last week end was the biennium pilgrimage at the Riesling Rendez vous in Seattle hosted by Chateau St Michelle and Loosen wines. The event is a great oppotunity to meet many Riesling producers and to talk Riesling for three days. Of course there is much host propaganda during this event, but overall it is genuinely a good thing for Riesling in general.

The who’s who of the Riesling world was attending with some of my Riesling heroes: Clemens Busch, Andre Ostertag, Egon Muller, Etienne Hugel, Fred Loimer, Nik Weis, Stuart Pigott, Bruce Sanderson, Bruce Schoenfeld, Anne Trimbach and many more… So many great folks sharing one passion: Riesling.

I had many favorite wines but here are some of the highlights for me:

- GERMANY/MOSEL: Clemens Busch GG 2008 Marienburg: Some botrytis, acacia, very fruity and young, clean, very Mosel though quite dry ++++

- GERMANY/SAAR: Sankt Urbans Hof okfener bockstein: honey, jasmine, sl reductive, very complex, my type of wine +++1/2+

- GERMANY/MOSEL: Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten 2008: bit tight, botrytis, high end kabinett style, some greaty potential, sweet +++1/2+

- NEW ZEALAND/MALBOROUGH: Framingham 2009: Very nice, clean, jasmine, pleasant, sweet, german in style with a new world twist. Medium Sweet +++

- GERMANY/NAHE: Schafer Frolich Felseneck 2008 Spatlese: Sweet and wild ferment like, leather, cane sugar, elegant and racy. Very unique and modern. medium sweet. +++

- AUSTRIA/WACHAU: Domain Wachau 2008 Smaragd: Very floral, Austrian by birth, almost Gewurzt like, yeasty, hot and dry ++1/2+

- NEW ZEALAND/MALBOROUGH: Villa Maria 2009 Reserve: sl dusty, mineral, yeasty, very nice acid, on the sweeter end of dry ++

- FRANCE/ALSACE: Hugel 2004 “Jubilee”: buttery, some age and showing Alsatian, yellow hue, clean, some petrol, complex, dry ++

Those were the top wines but many more were great. Our Biodynamic Wallula showed very well in the Organic/Biodynamic panel!

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.

The recent 89 points score in the wine spectator for our 2009 Sweet Riesling gave me the impulse for tasting through a vertical of Sweet Riesling from 2006 to 2009 (4 vintages). This would be since we’ve started making this wine. The inspiration for the Sweet Riesling came from German sweeter Rieslings that few people have been making in the US. We had to put a US twist on the wine due to our growing conditions (more sunlight, more heat…). I must say I am a bit curious to find out how they are holding up with age…

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.

This week I gave a small talk in front of a group of importers at the winery in West Richland. One of my assignment was to give them an idea of where Washington fits in the Riesling world. I went on to describe what in my mind the major characteristics of most Rieslings are. As I was doing this, it came to my mind that I could use a frame work to place Rieslings in some type of matrix and that it would help me to relate where Washington fits in comparison to other regions. Here is the way it came to me after the fact:

1- Riesling’s purity: Riesling’s elegance can be rather quickly destroyed by a heavy handed style. Riesling has a form of compulsive shyness and as soon as it put in contrast with another aromatic element it leaves the stage (“sorry, you are big and obnoxious, you have fun without me”). It appears that Riesling does not respond well to oaking (the oak overshadow the fine aromatics of Riesling), Riesling does not like malo lactic fermentation (the milky/buttery tone resulting from this fermentation is also overpowering) and Riesling does not like to blended. Usually most Riesling in the world rank high in purity. I will use a scale from 1 to 3 (1 is low purity, 3 is high purity).

2- Riesling’s fine aromas and a few twists: In general Riesling’s aromas are very dependant on the harvest date. During the ripening season, Riesling’s primary aromas evolve from early citrus tones to floral notes to a ripe stone fruit pallet. The primary aromas can be altered by two very important factors in Riesling. The first one is the amount of Botrytis at the time of harvest that would introduce waxy, honey like flavors. The second one is the propensity for some Riesling to develop a gasoline/petrol nose as it ages.  A minor third one would be the possibility for the winemaker to do some lees aging introducing some yeasty notes and somewhat increasing the weight of a given Riesling. I will use a scale from 1 to 3 (1 is citrus, 2 is floral, 3 is stone fruit), I’ll add a B for Botrytis, P for Petrol and a Y for Yeasty.

3- Sugar – Acid tension: Riesling is a bloody tart varietal and often requires the use of sugar to rebalance the acid in some fashion. They are many styles of Rieslings that tilt that acid/sugar balance toward super dry or super sweet with everything in between (that is why we make 10 different Rieslings at Pacific Rim). This is where the International Riesling Foundation scale comes handy. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here, so I will use the IRF scale’s and rank wine from 1 to 5 (1: Dry, 2:Medium Dry, 3:Medium Sweet, 4:Sweet, 5:Dessert).

Now if I am to qualify some of our wine here is the way I would go:

- Dry Riesling: 3 – 2Y – 1. A pure Riesling with floral notes and some yeastiness tasting Dry.

- Sweet Riesling: 3 – 3 – 3: A pure Riesling with stone fruit notes tasting medium Sweet.

Now if I have to make a broad categorization of Riesling regions:

- Australian: 3 – 1P – 1. Pure Rieslings with citrus note, often some petrol, very dry

- Alsatian: 3 – 2P – 1. Pure Rieslings with floral note, often some petrol, dry

- Mosel: 3 – 2B – 3: Pure Riesling with floral notes, fair amount of Botrytis influence, medium Sweet

- Canadian Ice Wine: 3 – 3B – 5: Pure Riesling with stone fruit nose, botrytis influence, dessert style

- WA classic style (think Wallula, Poet’s Leap, Eroica): 3 – 2 – 2: Pure Riesling, floral aromas and medium Dry

- WA old style (Johannisberg): 3 – 3 – 3: Pure Riesling, stone fruit and medium sweet

Here is to my new nomenclature!

I am offically obcessed with the idea that Riesling can be a larger category than Syrah – that is only the first step to the global Riesling domination that we have plans for (hehehe). Looks like we have a shot at seeing Riesling passing Syrah before the end of the year and become the #8 varietal in the country. Right now the index shows the following rank among varietals (52 weeks ending 2/6/10):

- #1: Chardo: 25% MS (marketshare) growing at +2.5% – Yep, still a lot of growth at that size..

- #2: CabSauv: 16% MS +4.8% – American love story with CabSauv. Can we grow Gamay that fast? Surely is not foreign to the Malbec Growth (Malbec is not part of the topd ten and is about half the size of Riesling right now)

- #3: Merlot: 12% MS -1.9% – Keep losing steam. might never recover…

- #4: Pinot Grigio/Gris: 9% MS +3.7% – Wake up folks, this is not that great of a wine

- #5: Pinot Noir: 6% MS +7.3% – Amazing to see PN in #5 now…

- #6: White Zin: 6% MS +0.5% – Do me a favor, drink Riesling instead of this White Zin thing

- #7: Sauv Blanc: 5% MS +7.7% – This is the white we need to follow on the way up

- #8: Syrah: 4% MS -7.5% – Ouch, this varietal is just going back in the dog house

- #9: Riesling: 3% MS + 8.9% – #1 growth in the top ten. ‘nuf said

#10: Zinfandel: 3% MS +3.7% – Yes, Riesling is bigger than Zinfandel

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.

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

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 was looking at the lastest Nielsen data and there was plenty of good news for Riesling lovers (and for our winery) in this report. First, overall white wines have been growing faster than reds over the past 13 weeks and 52 weeks (3.7% vs 2.4% and 4.0% vs 3.5% respectively) – good to see some love for the whites. Second, domestic wines are making a huge comeback (is this price driven due to a not so favorable exchange rate? is it a “buying domestic” trend that is often seen during recessions?); 4.9% growth for domestic wines (52 weeks) ve 0.1% growth for imports. Finally, among major varietal, Riesling is still the fastest growing varietal (+9.5% 13 weeks and +8.5% 52 weeks) ahead of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. Now Riesling sales are about a third of Pinot gris/pinot grigio!

Yesterday I was sitting on a Riesling tasting panel in Walla Walla and we were comparing Riesling from some classic regions in the world versus Washington. It is clear in my mind that Washington has its own style and produces its own type of Riesling. Here are a few thoughts about the regions we have tasted yesterday that I have put down:

- Mosel: Great acid, large influence of Botrytis with great honey, waxy nose. Kabinett styles are the most distinctive from that region and they balance the acid very well. A very distinctive style.

- Australia (Clare Valley): Bone dry styles. Lots of lemon, some alcohol and often some petrol notes. Once again a very specific profile that one cannot miss.

- Alsace: Very mineral wines with some ripeness and body. Sometimes a hint of alcohol. Not always technically bone dry but tasting almost always dry .

- Washington: Rarely bone dry, often some sugar though always great acid to balance the sugar. More fruity than steely with Peach being a main component. Often in a wide range of sweetness.