Washington’s state of Riesling

Nine Hats Wines 2016 Riesling, Columbia Valley, $14

Best Buy! The sister label of Walla Walla’s Long Shadows Vintners program is spearheaded by the brilliant Gilles Nicault, who doubled production of this Riesling over the 2015 vintage. And yet, there’s no drop-off. He continues to present this with a theme of stone fruit flavors and citrusy acidity, ranging orange blossoms to white peach and sweet lime, backed by ginger spice, clementine and nectarine to balance the residual sugar of 1.3%. This merited a gold medal at the 2017 Walla Walla Valley Wine Competition.

Rating: Outstanding!

Production: 2,617 cases

Alcohol: 13.4%

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