New Release!
Our dry Riesling wine has fresh aromatics and a vibrant palate and is made from three estate vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Intense aromatics of orange oil and Key lime pie are made complex by wafts of honey, forest rain and green apple. The palate is juicy and linear with more ripe green apple, lemon and yuzu leading to a long finish with subtle dried thyme and lime-leaf.
VINTAGE 2023 required experience and patience that was rewarded with essential hang-time and ripening. The growing season started cool, then May sunshine brought an average bloom in mid-June followed by a glorious summer. We enjoyed many classic 80-degree Willamette Valley days, with nighttime highs staying down in the 50s even in August, typically the warmest month here in Oregon. The only exception to these consistent diurnal swings was a single big heat spike in mid-August. We anticipated picking in early September. However, some fortuitous rain events allowed us to push back harvest and we were thankful for the additional hang time.
Harvest came early, but not too early. We brought in beautiful fruit and we were pleased to still be picking Pinot noir into early October. When you have fast accumulation of fruit sugars, cool weather can be a welcome respite with even small amounts of rain helping the grapevines regulate and slow ripening. One of the reasons why Oregon Pinot Noir is so prized is for its freshness of fruit, and you can only get that vibrancy when it’s under 50 degrees during picking.
2023 brought amazing fruit quality, but our production was down, especially on cool climate white wines like Pinot Gris. Being an estate grown winery, we must follow Mother Nature’s lead as we cannot buy fruit to increase production. Smaller yields do mean a smaller crop and less wine, but we embrace vintage variation. Another great benefit of being estate grown is that it’s our decision exactly when to pick. Rather than rushing to bring fruit into the cellar, in 2023 were able to play the odds and wait out the rain on blocks that needed additional hang time to get the flavor development we needed.
Our Riesling Estate is made from hand-picked fruit from three of our estate vineyards: our Winery Estate, Five Mountain and Windhill. Our Riesling vines are some of the oldest in Oregon, with our Estate and Windhill vines dating from 1975. These older vines give us fruit with a delightful complexity not often seen in domestic Rieslings.
We have the perfect climate for this delicate cool weather white wine – there’s enough sunlight and warmth for ripening, but our cool evenings help us retain the delicate varietal character. We whole-cluster press our Riesling grapes, then ferment the juice at very cool temperatures in small stainless steel tanks, producing an aromatic, crisp Riesling with a beautiful acid profile.
I absolutely loved this Riesling so dry and crisp!
Love your Riesling! We tried it at mount view brewery on fruit Loop. Thank u!
I enjoyed this dry, crisp wine also at lunch today while the temperature was 95. Will definitely add this to our white wine list.
One of the best white wines my wife and I have had in forever. Aromatic, with a crisp, subtle variety of fruits and smooth finish. The nose and color says it all.
I bought a case of this wine last year Just opened the last bottle. Best Riesling I have ever had.
Do you have any left ??
Excellent Riesling
Hi Karen! Unfortunately, we are sold out of Riesling right now, but we expect to release our 2021 Riesling soon. If you’re interested in preordering you can reply here or reach me at anna@elkcove.com. Cheers!