2009 Riesling

Vineyard del Sol

Rattlesnake Hills, Yakima Valley, Washington

Alc 12.5%

 

The Back Label:

 

Yes! Riesling—Pure and simple—or in our reality, pure and complex. An out of ordinary Riesling.

 

Aromas reminiscent of warm weather fruit—peaches, mangos, apricots. Hints of spice, citrus, and pine.

 

Almost DRY with light acidity to balance spicy hot Asian dishes or picante Latin seafood meals. Good with your sushi and grilled chicken as well. The MOST versatile wine with foods.

 

And just a bit more information:

 

We call it “Sushi Wine” because it is our favorite when the wasabi and ginger are steaming out the sinuses!

 

We also call it “Ceviche Wine” for the way it balances the lime and chiles in Latino seafood dishes.

 

It is made for balancing piquant dishes—chicken enchiladas with salsa verde, chicken curry, Thai-style pork curry, and fish tacos.

 

It has a tiny bit of residual sugar, 0.45%, and zesty acidity to get the juices flowing and rinse away the hot oils.

 

Adult Lemonade: The zingy taste and tropical citrus aromas make it a favorite “hot day on the patio wine.” Grill some shrimp with a lime and chile sauce. It is one of our best sellers when it is over 85°F!

 

Picked

10-13-2009

23.1°B

pH 3.18

Bottled

07-12-2010

R.S. 0.51

pH 3.13

Released

02/10/11

115 cases

12.5% alc

 

Dead Man’s Clone

 

Riesling has been cultivated for more than a millennium by vegetative cuttings—clones. Over millions of reproductions occasional small mutations occur—not quite identical twins. Usually they are assigned a number: Clone 1, Clone 4, etc. Farmers often do not know what clonal selection they have. In the Riesling Rush of the early 1980s no one cared.

 

As a wine maker and drinker, I kept finding similarities and differences that crossed climatic and wine-making boundaries. I chose eight vineyards that made Rieslings in two styles:

 

Style 1—I called Mosel style; it reminded me of the Riesling from that part of Germany.

 

Style 2—I called Rhine style; apricot-peach, great as a sweeter wine.

 

The Style 1 wines all came from three vineyards planted from cuttings from Ste Michelle’s Cold Creek Vineyard planted in the 1970s to clone ?. The other vineyards produced Style 2 and were cuttings from California.

 

The Dead Man’s Clone’s name comes from a murder. After a crew harvested cuttings they color coded them to distinguish the varieties. The foreman, who apparently was the only one who knew the codes, was killed in an altercation with a worker. The cuttings were confused. The Riesling was labeled Gewürztraminer and vice versa. The truth became evident when the vines grew up. Oops!

 

Our Riesling traces to this source. Chosen because it makes superb, drier styles. My favorite clone for Riesling wines with less than 1% R. S. (residual sugar).

 

Crisp, lively, aromas—tropical fruit salads, blossom (clover?), spice, and a hint of pine forest or is it pineapples?

 

Where do I get more?

 

Paradisos del Sol wine is always available at our tasting room or by calling us at 509.829.9000 (we deliver to the greater Seattle area and ship to a small number of states). We are also found in a very tiny number of wine shops. Please look on the order page of our web site for the current list.

 

Back to Paradisos del Sol web site

 

COME TASTE PARADISE!

 

Paradisos del Sol Winery

www.paradisosdelsol.com

3230 Highland Drive

Zillah, WA  98953

509.829.9000

 

Updated 3/2/11

 

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