2004 Estate Bottled Riesling

Wine Statistics

2004 The Vintage

Although 2004 was punctuated by intermittent periods of rain and sunshine during harvest, the year continued Oregon’s recent string of excellent growing seasons. An early spring, followed by a summer of warm, dry weather, lead to an early harvest. While we would have liked a bit longer hang time for some of the later ripening varietals, this particular growing cycle afforded us the opportunity to avoid the cool, wet weather that November often brings. At the end of the day, we were fortunate to have had the necessary “windows” between weather fronts to allow for harvesting all of our grapes during dry, sunny conditions. All in all, the wines from this harvest should be exceptional.

2004 Estate Bottled Riesling

As referenced above, Riesling is one of those later ripening varietals that we would have preferred to have just a few more days on the vine. However, the fruit was ready, weather conditions were ideal, and another storm front was on the horizon when we decided to pick on October 16th. The fruit was whole-cluster pressed, settled for 24 hours, and racked into stainless steel tanks for fermentation. The wine underwent our usual long, slow fermentation at approximately 55 degrees, which is designed to ensure that those wonderful aromas so associated with our Riesling are not lost in the process. When fermentation was complete, the wine received a gentle fining and cold stabilization. It was bottled on February 16, 2005.

Our estate vineyard has long been noted for the distinctive flavor profile of our Riesling grapes, and the 2004 wine is no exception. This semi-sweet Kabinett style Riesling exhibits intense aromas followed by soft flavors of peach and apricot. It pairs well with salads, fruit dishes, light entrees and spicy Asian foods.

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