Anam Cara Cellars 2012 Nicholas Estate Dry Riesling, Chehalem Mountains, $22
The Nicholas clan furthers its strong reputation with Germanic whites with this dry style of estate Riesling, which opens with tantalizing aromas of lime, apple and mango, backed by a thread of minerality. The delivery to the palate is crisp, bright and linear with stone fruit, lime and more minerality for depth. The residual sugar finished out at 1.2%, and it pegs out in the middle of the medium dry section on the International Riesling Foundation scale. This screwcapped bottle brought home a silver medal from the Seattle Wine & Food Experience Wine Competition.
Rating: Excellent
Production: 200 cases
Alcohol: 11.8%
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?