RIESLING, GEWURZTRAMINER,
PINOT GRIS, etc.
Though Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are the most
popular California white wines, Riesling and Gewurztraminer are certainly worthy
of our attention.
Many years ago California Rieslings were labeled as "Johannisberg
Riesling." This allowed California vintners to associate their
Riesling with wines from a famous German wine.
Some years ago, California winemakers began to drop the
"Johannisberg" from their Riesling labels. But this allowed for
a measure of trickery: the grape known as Silvaner (or Sylvaner) was
allowed to be labeled simply as "Riesling."
The Federal government finally got involved in the mid-1990s and they actually
help sort out the confusing mishmash of "Rieslings."
Sylvaner was formerly allowed to be sold as Franken Riesling, since it is a
prominent grape in Germany's Franken region. But, of course, California
wines labeled "Franken Riesling" were mislabeled since they did not
come from Franken vineyards. Calling the wines simply
"Riesling," allowed wineries to play on the more noble and prestigious
"White Riesling," while selling Sylvaner wines.
Wineries such as Louis Martini in Napa, Mirassou in Santa Clara and Parducci in
Mendocino all made Sylvaner wines, once upon a time. Rancho Sisquoc in
Santa Barbara also made "Franken Riesling" many years ago.
In the 1950s and 1960s, one of the more fashionable wines was called "Grey
Riesling." This was not related, precisely, to Riesling and, in fact,
this grape was really Trousseau Gris. It was also known as Chauché
Gris. You might understand why "Grey Riesling," then, was a more
popular way to label this wine.
A U.C. Davis hybrid was developed by Professor Harold Olmo in the 1940s and was
called Emerald Riesling. It was a crossing of Riesling and Sauvignon Vert
(which is also known as Muscadelle and Tocai Friulano). The grape was always called Emerald
Riesling and some suggested renaming it "Olmo" after the famous
viticulturalist. The government, though, rejected this and allows this
name, Emerald Riesling, to stand. Only a few hundred acres are cultivated
at this time, so it's a very minor wine.
Today, Riesling or White Riesling, has fallen out of favor, though plantings of
it along the west coast are on the rise.
In California, government stats show less than 1,500 acres being in the ground as
of 1999. As of 2007, California has 2,861 acres.
In California, Gewurztraminer today accounts for 1,563 acres. Pinot Gris is
planted on 9,389 acres in California.
For comparison: 94,282 acres of Chardonnay are planted in California. Sauvignon
Blanc amounts to 15, 367 acres.
Once upon a time many California wineries cultivated Riesling in vineyards
adjacent to Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. They made Riesling simply
because customers demanded diversity, not because they could make great or
compelling wines.
There have always been Riesling specialists, not only in California, but
Washington, Michigan and New York.
In California, the longest track record is owned by the Stony Hill Winery in
Napa. Don't let anybody tell you California Rieslings don't have finesse
or the ability to cellar for more than a year or two. Stony Hill can
certainly provide evidence to the contrary.
Despite being known
as "Cabernet Country," there are still good Rieslings made in
Napa. Trefethen Vineyards and Smith Madrone continue to produce Rieslings
of note. Gone by the wayside are Lyncrest and Veedercrest, two brands once
"hot" as Riesling makers.
Chateau Montelena in Calistoga continues to make Riesling, but today buys grapes
in Mendocino.
The Hagafen winery makes a Riesling, or two, and these are usually quite good.
In Sonoma, Chateau St. Jean made a range of Rieslings and Gewurztraminers under
winemaker Dick Arrowood in the 1970s. The winery produced wines from
slightly sweet to sticky sweet. They even labeled these as "BA"
for Beerenauslese and "TBA" for Trockenbeerenauslese. When the
German trade commission protested, Arrowood claimed "BA" stood for
"Botrytis Affected" and "TBA" indicated "Totally
Botrytis Affected."
Navarro Vineyards is a Riesling and Gewurz specialist in Mendocino's Anderson
Valley. Handley and Greenwood Ridge make some aromatic wines, as well.
Wente Brothers used to make some nice Rieslings in the 1970s, even producing
late harvest rarities. They got their fruit from Monterey, which should
still produce good Rieslings. Claiborne and Churchill make a nice Riesling
there still.
A few vintners in Oregon make Riesling, but Pinot Gris seems to do better on a
winemaking and commercial level.
Washington State is a large source of Riesling. The Ste. Michelle brand
bottles significant quantities of Riesling and California's Bonny Doon Vineyard
has a winery in the Pacific Northwest devoted to Riesling. We're fans of
the Long Shadows winery and their Riesling carries the Poet's Leap brand....
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TREFETHEN VINEYARDS
The
Trefethen family has been making Riesling since the 1970s and we're
pleased to report they're even better today than they were back then.
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The current vintage is 2007 and this, of course, comes from
Trefethen's estate vineyards in Napa's "Oak Knoll District."
This is just north of Carneros and south of Yountville.
The wine is low in alcohol by California standards and a tad high by
German measures. It's 13.0%. The residual sugar is less than 7
grams per liter. For most palates, it will taste rather dry.
We like the floral, citrusy and mildly petrol-like notes on the
nose.
A bottle paired with the fritto misto in the photo was grand!
It also paired well with a plate featuring smoked trout and salmon tartare. -
Currently in stock: 2007 TREFETHEN Napa DRY
RIESLING $19.99
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HERMANN WIEMER
While
few Californians know there's good wine being made in New York state,
we've long been fans of the Finger Lakes region.
Decades ago we visited the area and tasted wines at the winery of
Konstantin Frank, Glenora, Bully Hill and Hermann Wiemer.
Konstantin Frank was a real pioneer there, planting Riesling in
this region which had been more known for its labrusca varieties and
French-American hybrids. Hermann Wiemer was born in Germany's Mosel Valley
and his father was involved in viticulture. Wiemer came to the Finger
Lakes and started cultivating Riesling and other interesting Vinifera
grapes in the 1970s.
Aside from growing grapes and making some good wines, today the company is a big
time "nursery" for grape vines...they sell hundreds of thousands of
grafted vines annually, both to wineries and "backyard farmers."
The 2006 vintage "Dry" Riesling is a delightful
wine...really capturing the character of Riesling and even showing some
stony/slatey notes as you'd find in good German wines.
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Currently in stock: 2006 Wiemer Dry Riesling $19.99
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POET'S LEAP
Washington
State has numerous outstanding sites for Riesling and Gewürztraminer.
There are several "foreign" collaborators in winemaking
escapades in Washington. One is Chateau Ste. Michelle's "Eroica"
project, aided by wein-meister Ernst Loosen.
Another is that of Long Shadows...a label called Poet's Leap.
German wine authority Armin Diel, who co-authors the annual Gault-Millau
German wine guide, is a partner in this project. Diel also has his
family's wine estate and makes wonderful wines in Germany's Nahe region.
They planted various clones of Rieslings at Herr Diel's suggestion.
They've now made several vintages of Poet's Leap and it's routinely been one of
our favorite west coast Rieslings. They blend Riesling grapes from
vineyards in several locations and manage to nicely capture some of the
minerally notes one finds in good German wines. The wine is "off
dry," having around 10 grams of sugar per liter (most people find 5 grams
to be "dry")...
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Currently in stock: 2007 POET'S LEAP Riesling (List
$25) SALE $19.99
PIKES
We
don't have too many customers looking for Australian Riesling as few of
the locals have Riesling on their radar screen and, fewer still, would
know anything but Shiraz and maybe a Cabernet are even grown Down Under.
Yet Australia is a fantastic source of Riesling.
Given that so much goopy, sweet, flat, syrupy red wine comes from
Australia, it's difficult for some folks to acknowledge there are numerous
sophisticated Rieslings in the Southern Hemisphere. We've tasted a
number of wines which we're certain our German friends would find worthy
of a second pour.
Pikes is a name with history going back to the late 1800s. And the
brand is run by Andrew and Neil Pike who founded this Clare Valley
enterprise in 1984.
We have the 2009 vintage in stock and this is wonderfully fragrant and
intense Riesling. It's fresh and fruity, with citrusy, lime-like
notes shining brightly. There's a hint of sweetness, but it's really
only a hint, because the wine has zingy acidity and finishes with some
nice 'snap' on the end...It may even develop into a wonderfully complex
wine with bottle aging, but since most customers by a bottle in the
afternoon for drinking tonight, well, it's not likely much gets saved for
3-6 years.
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Currently in stock: 2009 PIKES Clare Valley
RIESLING $17.99
CHATEAU ST. JEAN
Back
in the 1970s, three "fellers" from the Central Valley thought it
would be a swell idea to start a winery in Sonoma. And they named it
after one of the feller's wives, Jean.
What was especially amusing is that most people gave it a French pronunciation,
"Chateau Sahnt Zhann." But the woman's name was
Jean.
They hired a smart and skilled winemaker, Dick Arrowood, who was known in
those days as "Richard." He was really a wizard at making
Rieslings and the winery was immediately "on the map" as a
source of some remarkably good wines.
When the economy hit a bump in the road, the fellers ended up having to
sell the winery and it was bought by a Japanese company. They ran
into money problems after a number of years and today the winery is owned
by the behemoth "Foster's Wine Group." If you
visit their tasting room, you'll wonder if they actually make wine there
in Sonoma or if it's mainly a gift shop selling clothing, dishes,
calendars and, every-once-in-a-while, a bottle of wine.
Wine geeks don't take this brand seriously, but they actually make some
decent wines. Some are better than decent. Riesling is quite
decent, but not upper-echelon-decent. It's correctly fruity and
mildly floral, with enough residual sugar to satisfy those folks who find
dry wines too "austere" or even
"sour."
While they used to get grapes from relatively cool climate areas of Sonoma
County, the winery web site indicates the grapes come from the Alexander
Valley...this may allow them to get a bountiful crop to achieve sufficient
sweetness to permit making a 12% alcohol wine with a residual sugar and
modest acidity. Perfectly pleasant, but not a
Hall-of-Fame candidate.
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Currently in stock: 2008 Chateau St Jean
Riesling $12.99
- You might have a look at these pages in pursuit of good, aromatic
wines...
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FRANCE'S
ALSACE
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GERMAN
WINES
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AUSTRIA
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GEWÜRZTRAMINER
The
Traminer grape is thought to have originated in the Alto Adige (which is
today part of Italy, though it's sometimes been Austrian).
It's a lovely variety which tends to ripen with a reddish color
as you can see, perhaps, in the photo above.
The famous Hungarian enological Johnny Appleseed, Agoston Haraszthy, is thought
to have brought the aromatic and spicy version of Traminer to California.
Some clones are less distinctive and the more "intense" Traminer seems
to produce wines which have aromatics reminiscent of rose petals and
grapefruit. Some tasters find notes of lychees in Gewürztraminer and, in
fact, research shows the grape to have some similarity to the lychee 'fruit' (or
nut)...
In the days before Prohibition, both the Charles Krug Winery and Gundlach
Bundschu Winery were somewhat highly-regarded for their Gewürztraminer
wines.
The Charles Krug Winery, run by the Mondavi family, was still a good source for
Traminer in the 1950s and the grape may have reached the height of its
popularity by the end of the 1970s when there were close to 5,000 acres planted
in California. According to current statistics, there are 1590 acres
planted in California today. Of the 3000 new acres of white wine grape
vineyards planted in California in 2008, not a single one was Gewürztraminer!
Today, there are not many wineries noted for Gewürztraminer.
The top sources for this variety in California would include Lazy Creek, Thomas
Fogarty, Claiborne & Churchill, Navarro, Stony Hill, Londer and Arista.
These vintners tend to make dry to just off-dry versions.
The Fetzer winery makes loads of Gewürztraminer, but it's less distinctive for
varietal character and noted more for being simply fruity, sweet and
low-priced. Sutter Home, the famed White Zinfandel producer, also dabbles
in Gewürztraminer and makes a wine rivaling Fetzer's.
We typically have a few Gewürztraminers from France's Alsace and one from
Germany. The most impressive and intense, is an Italian wine which is
vinified "dry" and made by the leading co-op winery in Italy's wine
village called Tramin. The Cantina Tramin has a special bottling called
"Nussbaumer" and this, for us, remains the reference point for Gewürztraminer.
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LAZY CREEK WINERY
This
is a smallish, highly-regarded estate in Mendocino's Anderson
Valley. It's a winery founded by a Swiss couple back in the
1970s...he'd been a waiter at San Francisco's legendary "Jacks"
and later at the "Blue Fox" restaurant (now long
gone).
Hans Kobler and his wife, Theresia, bought a property in the
boonies (literally...it's near Boonville) and he planted Gewürztraminer
and Pinot Noir. The Gewurz was planted on phylloxera-resistant rootstock,
since Hans didn't listen to the advice of experts who suggested AxR1
rootstock. The neighbors took the expert's advice and all had to replant
since AxR1 turned out not to be so phylloxera-resistant!
As a result, Lazy Creek still has some of the old Gewürztraminer in the
Anderson Valley!
The winery was sold by Kobler in 1998 to another couple and they grew weary of
the challenge a decade later. Today the winery is owned by the
Ferrari-Carano folks.
It will be interesting to see what changes take place and if the wines retain
their originality and relatively high quality.
We have some 2006 vintage Gewürztraminer in stock...lots of
spice notes and aromatics reminding me of poached pears...it's dry and fairly
full on the palate.
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Currently in stock: 2006 LAZY CREEK
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THOMAS FOGARTY
Dr.
Thomas Fogarty!
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This is a remarkable fellow with an amazing story...his
father was some sort of engineer and young Fogarty was hardly a scholarly
student as a kid...he was admitted to Xavier University by an admissions
officer on a probationary basis.
Well, Fogarty went on to medical school and became a leading
cardiologist. But wait! There's more!!
As a teenager he tinkered with a a clutch for his scooter and
actually invented an automatic centrifugal clutch which motorcycle builders
routinely use to this day. He invented something called an embolectomy
catheter for use in heart surgery (and this was before he was even a medical
doctor!). The man holds scads (that's a technical term) of patents for
various doohickeys (another technical term).
Back in the late 1960s he helped a medical colleague in a small winemaking
project and then embarked on his own home-winemaking adventure. By the
early 1980s, thoroughly bitten by the wine bug, Fogarty planted vineyards in the
Portola Valley zip code, up on Skyline Boulevard south of Alice's Restaurant in
Woodside.
He hired a good winemaker, Michael Martella and the two are a formidable
team, routinely producing top Gewürztraminer from fruit grown in Monterey
County.
I recall visiting the winery in the late 1980s or early 1990s and hearing Doc
Fogarty mention how the winery was not hugely profitable and that he had to keep
his "day job" to generate enough money to keep the winery going!
The place is gorgeous...and it has, on a clear day, a
spectacular vista of the Bay Area.
Gewürztraminer routinely displays lots of spice notes.
And they actually vinify it "dry," as this vintage has less than half
a percent of residual sugar (drier than most California Chardonnays, for
example).
We like this wine with all sort of foods...Asian-styled seafood makes for a
delightful combination.
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Currently in stock: 2007 FOGARTY Gewürztraminer
$12.99
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