A year ago, Stephen Reustle won a trio of Platinums Awards for Grüner Veltliner, as both the 2021 Green Lizard and the 2021 Hefeabzug earned Double Platinums and received 97 and 96 points, respectively, followed by the 2020 Hefeabzug.
Acclaim and gold medals for his interpretations of the Austrian grape he grows in Oregon’s Umpqua Valley are consistently achieved across the country, which explains why 22 of the 55 career Platinum Awards that Reustle-Prayer Rock Vineyards have won have been for Grüner Veltliner. Indeed, grün, which translates to green in English, has been golden for Reustle.
During this year’s 24th annual Platinum, it was the 2022 Hefeabzug — an expression crafted with part of the fermented wine spending time on spent yeast — that came out ahead. In fact, the panel went nearly all the way, giving it 99 points, and making it the No. 1 wine of the three-day judging at the Clover Island Inn overlooking the Columbia River in Kennewick, Wash.
Clinton Hoiland, a regular panelist at the Platinum Awards, handles sales for Idaho Wine Merchant. When he’s not managing those accounts, Hoiland operates his Twisted Vine Wine Tours throughout the Lewis-Clark Valley. Much of his life is spent evaluating dozens of wines on a weekly basis. And yet, the 2022 Hefeabzug almost knocked his socks off.
“Lifting up that glass and smelling the delightfully delicate aroma of orange blossom wafting up from the glass? My toes curled,” he remembers. “Grüner has always been a varietal that has spoken to me. It has the potential to be wonderfully complex, similar to a red wine if it is treated correctly.”
Considering that Reustle’s 2021 Green Lizard was voted Best White Wine at the 2023 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the showing of his 2022 Hefeabzug at the 2023 Platinum might be viewed as an upset. Instead, Reustle views it as divine intervention. After all, he conducted the blending trials for his Grüner program from the 2022 vintage the same day his Green Lizard stood out during the white wine sweepstakes at the Chronicle.
“The 2022 Hefeabzug is the quintessential Grüner Veltliner,” Reustle says. “It’s like it was right out of the Wachau in Austria, leaning a bit more to the (medium-ripeness) federspiel style as opposed to the smaragd style (top ripeness) that the 2021 Green Lizard exhibits.”
Florida-based sommelier/journalist Ellen Landis, perhaps the most well-traveled competition judge in the U.S., leads panels for the American Wine Society and other seminars around the country on the rise of Grüner Veltliner in North America. Her perception of the 2022 Hefeabzug was one of near-perfection.
“A crisp, heavenly expression of Grüner Veltliner,” she said. “The captivating floral aromatic leads to starfruit, chamomile, citrusy accents, white pepper, hints of exotic tea and a thread of minerality, which dance on the palate with brilliant balancing acidity. It’s well-structured and intense while pure and elegant with a finish that keeps on delivering long after the last sip. Wow. It’s everything one could ask for in a Grüner Veltliner.”
It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since Reustle sold a successful marketing agency on the East Coast and turned his sights toward winemaking. And in 2024, Reustle and his wife, Gloria, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their estate winery in Southern Oregon’s historic yet often- overlooked Umpqua Valley.
They’ve won Platinum Awards with eight varieties, an honor roll that includes Syrah (12), Pinot Noir (7) and Tempranillo (5). This marks the fourth time a wine by the Reustles has been either the Platinum Awards’ Best of the Best — No. 1 overall — or the Best White of the judging. Two years ago, it was the 2021 Estate Selection Sauvignon Blanc. In 2020, it was the 2018 Hefeabzug. In 2017, there was the Revelation & Sorek Bloc Grüner.
The Reustles take a sense of delight and pride that other regions have begun to achieve success with Grüner Veltliner. This past year, SCORIA Vineyards in Idaho’s Snake River Valley won a double gold at the 2023 Cascadia International. That same wine by James Nederend was awarded a Double Platinum and 97 points. During the 2023 Great Northwest Invitational in Oregon, Williamson Vineyards received a double gold medal and Huston Vineyards a gold.
“Grüner Veltliner likes a cool climate to thrive in, and Idaho does offer that, and well-drained soils as well,” Landis says. “Huston Vineyards was the first to grow this cultivar in Idaho and released Idaho’s first Grüner Veltliner in 2020.”
Reustle’s work with Grüner at his Prayer Rock Vineyards has stayed true to the brilliantly crisp and textured nature of those produced in Austria. Only recently has Reustle-grown Grüner been produced as a methode Champenoise sparkling wine. It’s a project spearheaded by Reustle’s longtime associate winemaker, Wade Smith. That wine, called Addie’s Sparkles, is, in a way, a tribute to the Hefeabzug because it spends 12 months en tirage — bottle-aged on the lees.
However, it’s obvious that Reustle-Prayer Rock Vineyards, the 2017 Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year for Wine Press Northwest, continues to consistently craft some of the country’s best wines — red or white.
At the start of the year, panels at the 2023 San Francisco Chronicle awarded gold medals to his 2021 Estate Winemaker’s Reserve Pinot Noir, 2021 Estate Selection Syrah and 2021 Estate Winemaker’s Reserve Syrah. Ten months later, that 2021 Selection Syrah was picked as best of class at the Sip Magazine judging in Seattle. And the 2022 Hefeabzug received a double gold, but not best of class.
To those results, one might playfully say, “Well, the judges don’t get them all right.”
For Hoiland, the 2022 Hefeabzug flavor profile reminds him of Ruby Red grapefruit, peach, apricot and pear — fruit-driven yet dry.
“On the finish, the taste of raw honey pervades, but without being cloying or sweet,” he says. “This wine changes in the glass, as you would expect from a high-end wine. And when I enjoyed a bottle of it at a later date with a red-wine-only drinker, he loved it.
“It’s a wine that everyone should make a priority to taste for themselves,” Hoiland adds.
One evening after the 2023 harvest, Reustle sat down and revisited both his Chronicle-winning 2021 Estate Green Lizard and the 99-point 2022 Estate Hefeabzug. There’s the cliché that a winemaker will tell you the best wine they’ve made is the one they are trying to sell you. That’s not always the case — at least on this day.
“The winner in the head-to-head tonight is the 2021 Green Lizard,” the U.S. guru of Grüner said. “It tastes like a super-expensive Grand Cru Burgundy!”
Those who awarded the Platinums in 2023 were Gary Hayes, proprietor SavorNW/Explorer Media Group, Inc., Cannon Beach, Ore.; Clinton Hoiland, owner/operator of Twisted Vine Wine Tours, Lewiston, Idaho; Northern Idaho on- and off-premise sales for Idaho Wine Merchant; Ellen Landis, certified sommelier/ journalist, St. Petersburg, Fla.; Dr. Richard Larsen, research winemaker/ enologist emeritus, Washington State University, Puyallup, Wash.; Kimberlea Miller, chef/writer/owner, Wildflower Barrelhouse Wine Bar, North Bend, Wash.; Stephen Reustle, director of winemaking/co-owner, Reustle-Prayer Rock Vineyards, Roseburg, Ore.; Ken Robertson, associate editor/columnist, Great Northwest Wine; Alexis Sells, winemaker/owner, Adelia Wine Cellars, Yakima, and Steven Sinkler, owner/ vintner, The Wine Shack and Puffin Wines, Cannon Beach, Ore.
Chief judges were Sonnay Alvarez, owner/marketing director, Altanto Vino, Boise, Idaho; Amberleigh Brownson, certified sommelier, business development specialist for Bellingham (Wash.) Alive! Magazine, and Sharon Jordan, editor, Foothills Magazine, Wenatchee, Wash.
Judging coordinators were Mike Rader, Kennewick, and Kim Wolfe, Snohomish. Facilitators were Fernando Alvarez, Moses Lake; Traci Degerman, Richland; Helen Moir, Chesaw, Wash.; Katie Marple, Richland, Wash.; Paul Sinclair, Sunriver, Ore., Renee Staat, Kennewick; Danny Staat, Kennewick, Lisa Veinpel, Vernon, British Columbia, and Barb Wendlendt, Richland.
• For the list of qualifying competitions, go to GreatNorthwestWine.com/platinum-awards for more information.
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