Silver Lake Winery 2012 Roza Riesling, Rattlesnake Hills, $9
Best Buy! One of Woodinville’s oldest wineries had the prescience to lock up vineyards in the Roza, one of higher-elevation sites in the Yakima Valley and where much of Washington state’s top Riesling hails from. It opens with fruit salad aromas of fresh apple and Asian pear with clove and honeysuckle. On the palate, the luscious fruit takes a beautifully tropical angle with mango joining the orchard fruit. The abundant residual sugar (5%) is perfectly balanced by acidity than keeps delivering through to the pinch of anise in the finish. This earned a gold medal at the 2014 Seattle Wine and Food Experience Wine Competition.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 14,000 cases
Alcohol: 10.7%
Hard to omit mention of Chehelam Riesling in nay such listing. Harry Nedry-Petersen made this , in my opinion, the ultimate in a dry , yet luscious version, more Austrian style than the boring sweet,”same old, Same old” versions more typical in the NW. While nice, I think /Eroica is overrated and a little overpriced-doesn;t touch Harry’s product!
Hi, Robert.
The Eroica is not mentioned here, either. As we indicated, these were Rieslings we’ve tasted in the past few weeks. Chehalem’s was not among those.
That said, we did review Chehalem’s 2011 Three Vineyards Riesling last fall – and loved it:
https://greatnorthwestwine.com/2013/10/11/chehalem-wines-2011-three-vineyards-riesling-willamette-valley-24/
Greetings Robert,
Andy & I remain huge fans and supporters of Chehalem Wines.
Perhaps you are unaware, but I wrote the profile of Chehalem Wines for the current issue of Wine Press Northwest, in which Chehalem was presented as Oregon Winery of the Year for 2014.
http://www.winepressnw.com/2014/03/11/2874609/2014-oregon-winery-of-the-year.html?sp=/99/1644/1668/
Harry Peterson-Nedry long has been one of my go-to winemakers for insight and history on many topics, and I’ve enjoyed interviewing Wynne during the past couple of years.
Chehalem is indeed a fascinating winery on many levels — including Riesling — and we look forward to watching how the next chapter is written.
I’d be curious to know which Riesling produced by Chehalem is your favorite, the SEXT or the Three Vineyard?