The Wine Knows

Going into our big Riesling judging today, I figured we would be able to get a sense of where the Pacific Northwest stands in alternative closures. With Riesling being a white wine that generally will be drunk in its youth, there would be a greater likelihood of alternatives such as screwcaps and synthetics.

One item of note as we prep for our Riesling competition this weekend: The noble white wine grape of Germany and Alsace is produced throughout the Pacific Northwest. In fact, I'm a bit amazed at how many various appellations are represented on wine bottles.

One of the versatilities with Riesling also is one of its perception problems with consumers. This came to light as I entered wine for our Riesling judging into our databases.

Very few Rieslings provide signals about whether the wine is dry, off-dry or sweet.

The Wine Press Northwest crew is prepping for a Riesling judging this weekend, and I am salivating as I enter wines into our database.

While Chardonnay still is far and away the most popular white wine in America, I have to think that Riesling is the greatest.

It's been more than 20 years since Mike Sauer and David Lake planted the first Syrah in Washington. Sauer, the owner of Red Willow Vineyard in the western Yakima Valley, and Lake, then winemaker for Columbia Winery, decided to give the red Rhone variety a chance.

A friend called me the other day to ask my opinion on the best three places to grow Cabernet Sauvignon in Washington. We ended up veering off into some interesting side discussions, which I thought would be fun to extend to this forum.

Look at those words up in the headline. Until now, we've never seen them on a bottle of wine. But yesterday, I saw that a Petite Sirah from Spangler Vineyards in Southern Oregon's Umpqua Valley had shown up as a new release. Before this year, putting "Petite Sirah" on a wine label in Oregon was against the law.

As I mentioned last month in one or two posts, I was rather dismayed by the high alcohols in many Oregon wines during our judging of Northwest Pinot Noirs. We had many wines above 14% alcohol - and a few above 15%.

Two weeks ago, I was chatting with Terry Casteel, co-owner/winemaker of Bethel Heights Vineyard in Oregon's Eola-Amity Hills. We got on the subject of high alcohols, and he was able to share some insights on the issues Oregon winemakers have faced since 1998.

There is no doubt that Oregon dominates the Pacific Northwest Pinot Noir scene. That will always be the case, I am assured.

But it's no longer just a "Willamette Valley" appellation wine. I am stunned by the vast number of appellations carried on the bottles of Pinot Noir we judged for our Spring issue report.

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.