The Wine Knows

Between the mammoth amounts of Riesling that Ste. Michelle makes (more than 1 million cases as a company) and the excitement that Randall Grahm has brought to Washington with Pacific Rim Riesling (130,000 cases in 2007), somehow Hogue occasionally falls off my radar, even though the Yakima Valley winery produces about 200,000 cases of Washington's second-favorite white wine.

Unlike Ste. Michelle and Pacific Rim, which bottle up to seven different styles of Riesling each, Hogue keeps things fairly simple. It produces its regular Riesling, late-harvest Riesling and Genesis Riesling. All are under screwcaps.

A couple of weeks ago, the Wine Press Northwest crew sat in on a tasting of Hogue wines with Co Dinn, director of winemaking, and his team. We tasted through most of the current releases, as well as some older wines (including a '93 Cab). While talking about the Riesling program, Dinn said production continues to increase and Riesling is by far the biggest category, making up a third of the winery's 600,000-case production.

I asked if he was having any trouble finding more Riesling because of the pressure from Ste. Michelle and, now, Pacific Rim. Dinn made it clear he has no shortage of sources for the grapes he needs well into the foreseeable future.

Fellow Washington state Constellation wineries Columbia Winery and Covey Run also make a whole lot of Riesling, with Columbia making 90,000 cases of its wildly popular Cellarmaster's Riesling and Covey Run producing about 100,000 cases of its regular and dry Rieslings.

Hogue was purchased by Constellation (along with the rest of Vincor) a couple of years ago. Dinn mentioned that the sale changed little in their day-to-day operations. The winemakers have more access to information. Frankly, he said, Hogue is a leader in the company in innovative winemaking, including the successful use of micro-oxigenation as well as screwcaps.

Micro-ox is used for all of Hogue's lower-tiered reds. The Cab, Merlot, Syrah and Cab-Merlot are aged in stainless steel tanks with oak staves. A computer puts tiny amounts of oxygen through the tanks to mimic barrel aging and to soften tannins. The result is a $10 red that tastes a lot more expensive, is a lot more approachable and can be released a lot sooner. Hogue has pioneered micro-ox for years and is one of the country's most successful users of the process.